TURNING THE PAGE ON LITERACY GAPS

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Liam Toledo. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Liam Toledo has always loved to read, and now he’s helping other young people have the opportunity to do the same. A few years back, Liam was perplexed by the lengthy drive to the library. He recognized that the Rio Grande Valley, which has a high level of poverty, didn’t make it easy for children to have access to reading material. This exacerbated their academic struggles in school. Looking to find a means to close the literacy gap, he established Liam’s Community Library, where children can come and take out books from a storage area provided by the local community center. Once a month, Liam and his team of volunteers set up the library and allow kids to take out as many books as they want. Next month, they simply return them.

Liam has also seen the ups and downs of managing your own organization. After attendance decreased following the library’s first year, he realized he needed another means of funding it. Inspired by his own sweet tooth, Liam established a cotton candy business that would raise funds to maintain the library. Using the tools he learned in tycoon Warren Buffett’s Letters to Shareholders, Liam realized he could make cotton candy for around 30 cents and sell it for $4 each. He uses the profits to fund the library, as well as to provide donations to the local hospital and police department. Liam has also established two permanent bookshelves at the South Texas Health System Children’s Hospital in Edinburg.

Now a rising high school sophomore, Liam is balancing a busy academic workload with 15 to 20 hours of volunteer work at the library each week. Whether he’s managing inventory or negotiating with sponsors and donors, Liam’s prime focus continues to be using his time to serve his community and demolish the literacy gap. Thus far, he has over 3,000 books in circulation and has donated 1,425 books to hospitals, police departments, and schools. But he’s also inspired his fellow community members to throw their hats in the volunteer ring. He has trained over 15 volunteers to help operate the library, therefore providing his peers with the rewarding experience of seeing volunteerism’s power. Liam’s Community Library is a testament to how volunteerism directly affects a community for the better.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

After a long drive to the library just to get a book, I realized that drive was more than just an inconvenience. It was a barrier to most kids living in the Rio Grande Valley. Many kids don’t have easy access to books in the area due to high levels of poverty. I recognized that need, and I wanted to help. I’ve always been an avid reader and have always known the power and knowledge that books provide. In school, I recognized early that many of my classmates struggled to read. I wanted to provide easy access to books. I started thinking about how I could share my book collection with other kids. I realized then that if kids cannot get to the library, I could bring my books to them. I asked to borrow space from my local community center, and one month and 800 books later, Liam’s Community Library was born.

What inspires you to volunteer?

The challenge of finding creative solutions to local problems. I just really enjoy looking at a puzzle in the community, breaking it down, and figuring out a strategy to fix it using a little bit of business logic. But the best part is just seeing the direct impact on people, knowing that a simple idea and some hard work generally made someone else’s day a little better or gave a kid a new opportunity.

Tell us about your volunteer role with Liam’s Community Library.

When I first started the library, I was doing everything on my own, but I realized I couldn’t do it without volunteers or my community. Now, my main job is to keep track of our inventory, which has grown to over 2,500 books. I manage checkouts and sort through donations. I also spend a lot of time organizing events for kids. I handle our partnerships by calling and emailing local businesses like Copy Zone, Starbucks, and Chick-Fil-A to see if they can help us out with flyers or donations for our events. It takes a lot of teamwork, but working with our volunteers, community leaders, and corporate partners has helped the library grow.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

My long-term plans include expanding my catalog and the library’s reach to other cities in the Rio Grande Valley. To do this, I plan to install more bookshelves in hospitals and shelters across the valley where kids need them most. My long-term goal, however, is for the library to continue after I go to college. To do this, I am training my little brother to run the library and my cotton candy stand, which funds my library, to keep the library growing and to spread literacy for many years to come.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

Some of the big ones are parents telling me that their children are reading more at home and are excited to come back to the library, or providing comfort to the kids in the hospital and the police department with my book donations. Also, achieving true self-sustainability by way of the cotton candy stand, and how something I made helps fund this other thing I made. But to me, the most rewarding part of this work is seeing kids excited about reading. It’s amazing to watch them come back asking for another book and develop a real love of reading. Knowing that the library is helping close the literacy gap and inspire a lifelong love of learning makes every hour of hard work worth it and gives me hope for the future.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

Running the library has helped me develop valuable negotiation, collaboration, and leadership skills that are necessary to keep it thriving. More importantly, I learned how to pivot and solve problems when things get tough. After the first anniversary, attendance began to decline. I switched my strategy from donation-based to self-sustaining. This strategy has proven successful over the past two years by providing a constant stream of funds to purchase new popular books that kids want to read, maintaining interest in the library in the long term. Another important thing I’ve learned from the library is how collaboration can make projects successful. My volunteers and I work as a team to make the library the success it is today.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

Through this process, I have learned that when you take something and move it into action, you grow as a person and you serve your community. Even the smallest act of service inspires others to take action. If each of us took some small act to help others, we could change the world in some small way for the better.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

So many people are capable of thriving when they are given the resources and the support they need. I have seen kids go from reading below their grade level to mastering more challenging books with confidence and developing a passion for lifelong learning. This experience has shown me that you do not have to wait until you are older or have a lot of resources to make a difference. If you see a need in your community, taking the first step can create opportunities that change lives. With passion and dedication, even a simple idea can have a lasting impact.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Liam? Find local volunteer opportunities.