Dave and Sherry Savage are the driving force behind Uncle Dave\u2019s Book Club at the East County Transitional Living Center, a 540-bed facility for homeless families. Partnering with the La Jolla Sunrise Rotary Club, of which they are longtime members, they created a library and filled it with children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n
This library is unique. A child who enjoys a book gets to keep it, and the book will be replenished so there is always a full library.<\/p>\n
Dave and Sherry want to share their special relationship with books. Both were raised in families that emphasized reading at early ages, and both fell in love with books. Books affected their lives and even helped change their career paths.<\/p>\n
Dave is from a muti-generational family of book lovers, including a great aunt who operated a mobile library in the 1930s. He grew up reading the classics.<\/p>\n
Sherry spent every weekend with her grandmother, who had a passion for books and made sure Sherry\u2019s room was full of them.<\/p>\n
When her family moved and she was allowed to bring only one suitcase, Sherry filled it with books rather than toys, she said, \u201cbecause they had become my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 19, Dave read a book about real estate investing, was inspired and decided to forego college to pursue a career investing in apartments.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy whole career started with reading that book,\u201d he said. \u201cI learned I could be my own boss with no ceiling on my income, that I could borrow money to buy buildings and have somebody else pay it back. I loved the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherry learned about entrepreneurship through books, decided to forego college and opened a small business.<\/p>\n
Both have had highly successful careers.<\/p>\n
During their first date in 2016, they bonded over books and their similar life experiences. They were married that year.<\/p>\n
The idea for Uncle Dave\u2019s Book Club grew from his family\u2019s reading culture. \u201cI had a full library of old books and decided to offer inducements to my seven nieces and nephews to read and give me book reports,\u201d Dave said. \u201cWe called it Uncle Dave\u2019s Book Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong the many books was the 1,000-page Complete Works of Shakespeare. Surprisingly, my little niece read it and gave a nice report.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave and Sherry\u2019s first book project outside of family was in Mozambique, Africa, also called Uncle Dave\u2019s Book Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough an international program, we learned of the Mozambique government\u2019s efforts to improve literacy as a key to improving their citizens\u2019 quality of life,\u201d Sherry said. \u201cWe funded the first book in their traditional tribal language, a folklore book with beautiful illustrations that was handed out to children.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a story they would have heard their grandparents tell around the campfire, but they never saw in print.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe traveled there and saw children holding books for the first time,\u201d Dave added. \u201cIt was a real life-changing time for us as a couple. That became the impetus for creating Uncle Dave\u2019s Book Club at the East County Transitional Living Center.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Julie Hayden, the Center\u2019s CEO, Uncle Dave\u2019s Book Club is a key to helping hundreds of families adjust from trauma-filled lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of these children have been homeless in one way or another,\u201d she explained. \u201cSome from riverbeds, some from the streets or trolley stations and some living in cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe library gives them a safe spot and fun environment with books, as opposed to the stressful environment they experienced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have parents reading with their children, which didn\u2019t happen before since they didn\u2019t have easy access to books. It is something special for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave and Sherry, 69 and 64, respectively, plan to expand the library into a learning center with volunteer readers and teachers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelping these families is really fulfilling,\u201d Dave said. \u201cWe want to take it further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherry acknowledged she tears up when seeing children in the library and their enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall gestures,\u201d she said, \u201cmake big impacts on children and their lifetime as adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that starts with a book, something as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n
About this series<\/p>\n
Goldsmith is a Union-Tribune contributing columnist.<\/p>\n
We welcome reader suggestions of people who have done something extraordinary or otherwise educational, inspiring or interesting and who have not received much previous media. Please send suggestions to Jan Goldsmith at\u00a0jgsandiego@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave and Sherry Savage are the driving force behind Uncle Dave\u2019s Book Club at the East County Transitional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,23,100,592,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-431880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-people","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}