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Pa. distributor donates to his favorite cause, the local library
When Marc Laucks was 5 years old, his mother would take him to the library in York County, Pa. on Saturday mornings. He remembers a wooden pedestal holding a giant glass jar, filled with dollars and change—donations to fund the library. Laucks decided that he, too, would one day have a library, thinking it was funded merely by a tip jar. At that time, his favorite book was a biography of J.C. Penney, the department store mogul.
“I have always felt strongly about the library and its contributions to the community,” says Laucks, who still lives in York County. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, he would go to the library book sale to shop for cast-off college textbooks for $1. “I wasn’t college-educated, so I would pick up these books on psychology, chemistry, history and all kinds of stuff…it really expanded my knowledge base. If you can’t get a few hundred dollars’ worth of knowledge from a dollar book,” he says, you’re not reading closely enough.
The library Laucks remembers as a kid eventually doubled its size when the adjoining business donated its property. “It is the most magnificent library you have ever seen in a small town,” he says reverently. “Truly it is beautiful.” The York County Martin Library suffered severe budget cuts in 2004, causing reduced hours and doubled late fees, according to the American Library Association and the York Dispatch. Last year, state budgets restored funding that should bring operations back to normal levels.
“Marc is a familiar face at a lot of our events,” says Allison Meckley, special events manager. “He’s always popping in to say, ‘I was just reading this, what do you think?’ Recently, he’s started to revisit a lot of children’s books.” In addition to attending seminars and workshops on Japanese culture, insects, and the arts, Laucks often brings the librarians chocolates to share with patrons.
Although Laucks has been a lifelong fan of the library, he got more closely involved in 2005. “Rather than doing our traditional Christmas appreciation for customers, which was hand-delivering cookies, I made a donation in each of their names—about 80 people at the time—the library.” Laucks’ contact at the library turned out to be an elementary school classmate of his, and they met to talk about the books that would be bought with his donation. He ended up assisting the library with its annual report and donating some promotional pieces. “They were doing really simple black-and-white work for their brochures, and I thought, ‘Come on, this is the library! You have to shine!” he says.
Laucks likes to bring his family into the library, Meckley says, and she often sees his father and his wife at social functions. Several months ago, Laucks said, the family was getting ready for a funeral and his 12-year-old son asserted that he’d liked to be remembered after he died. “I thought, ‘Wow! My son is interested in altruism; he’s thinking about his contribution,’” Laucks says. The two went on a father-son trip to the library, where Laucks showed his son some books and artwork he had donated to the library while explaining volunteering and giving back. “It was really a cool thing.”
Although he’s a donor and a leader at the library, he still looks to its collection as a resource. Recently, Laucks has checked out a few business books by Robert Bly. “I’m trying to distinguish myself as a direct mail provider, so I’m looking to those kinds of books.” Also, he’s leafing through a book on knots. “My sons and I play badminton on the campus of a local university and every time I tie up the nets, they fall down. So I went looking for a book on knots,” he says, which has resulted in tied-up string on lamps, on stepstools and his steering wheel. But the nets finally stay up.
“The library is one of those quiet little places people don’t often think about, and it’s so valuable to a community. I encourage everyone to support a local library,” Laucks says.
—Rebecca Trela