Books & Badges Program Builds Bonds With Police, Firefighters

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — Children's storytime has grown in popularity in western Loudoun County as special guests who wear badges show up at the local library to read books to kids on a weekly basis. The Purcellville Library works in partnership with the town's police department to make sure a public safety officer shows up every Thursday to read to the kids. If the children are lucky, the special guests might let the kids put on their fire helmet or meet their dogs who help to fight crime.

The Purcellville Library, one of 10 libraries in the Loudoun County Public Library system, kicked off the program, called Books & Badges, in September 2016 soon after Cynthia McAlister was hired as the town's police chief. Storytime had always been a regular feature at the Purcellville Library. But when the idea came up to bring in police officers, firefighters, or other first-responders to read to children on a weekly basis, the library jumped at the opportunity.

As Books & Badges enters its fourth year, Shanna McGaughey, head of youth services at Purcellville Library, senses the program will keep going for a long time due in part to the fact that the public safety officers enjoy participating in the program.

For the children, "it teaches them an appreciation for what our public servants do," McGaughey said in an interview with Patch. Police officers and firefighters will often describe their jobs before they begin reading books to the children. And in a small community like Purcellville, with a population of about 10,000, the children often will run into the badge-wearing storytime readers in the days and weeks after the program. "When they go to the grocery store, they might see Officer Steve," McGaughey said. "It's very exciting that they saw him and learned about him at storytime."

For Purcellville Police Chief McAlister, one of the goals of the program was to give children and their parents an opportunity to interact with law enforcement officials. "I wanted the children to see us as 'friends' and not people they should be afraid of. It was also an opportunity to show the children some of our equipment and vehicles," McAlister said in an email to Patch.

With Purcellville's relatively small police force, it became a human resources challenge over time for the town's police officers to be at the library for each weekly visit. It also became a bit redundant for the Purcellville officers as well as the children, according to McAlister, who said she got the idea for Books & Badges from a colleague who had built a similar program in another jurisdiction.

Christa Kermode, who works as an administrative assistant for the town police department, came up with the idea of adding more "badges" in public safety to the program. "The kids seem to really enjoy having the variety of public safety members visiting with them," McAlister said.

Along with Purcellville Police Department officers, the storytime readers include members of the Purcellville Volunteer Rescue Squad, Purcellville Volunteer Fire Co., Loudoun County Fire and Rescue, Loudoun County Fire Marshal's office, and the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

McGaughey and her colleagues in the youth services department don't have to spend time with recruiting public safety officials to show up at 10:15 a.m. for the Thursday storytime.

Kermode at the police department contacts officials about their availability and then puts together the schedule for the library. At the end of December, Kermode sent the Purcellville Library a calendar for 2020 showing who was coming each Thursday. "Christa handles everything" to do with the scheduling, McGaughey said, with a sound a relief.

One of the extra special guests that a fire official brought to storytime is Dolley the Fire Dog, who is trained to sniff out flammable items at a site for Loudoun Fire and Rescue to see if the fire was an act of arson. As part of a National Geographic Books series, a children's book was written about Dolley and the work she does for the Loudoun fire department. "She's an awesome dog," McGaughey said.

The Thursday storytime typically has a big turnout of children and their parents. The children's area at the Purceville Library is large enough to accomodate up to 50 people.

The Books & Badges idea has spread to other libraries in the Loudoun system. But Purcellville is the only branch that does it every week. Because Purcellville has its own police and fire and rescue departments and is also served by Loudoun County public safety departments, the library has a large pool of public safety personnel to draw upon to participate in the Books & Badges program.

"The beauty of Purcellville is we are a small community," McGaughey said. "We're able to coordinate this. We can do it every week."