Read All About It!

In the spirit of the Associate Board hosted ReadOn event, we thought you would all like to hear a little insight into the moment that made Dipak Patel, the AB’s resident foodie, fall for open books. In his own words, here we go . . .

What a Long Strange Trip by Dipak Patel
‘What a long strange trip it’s been’ I believe is the name of a Grateful Dead album– but it can also somewhat describe how my involvement with Open Books began.  I am sure many of us who are involved with Open Books have colorful stories too about how they discovered such an incredible organization.

Here is my slightly wacky path to Open Books – for the last few years I usually decide at some point during the year that I go out way too often during the week and that I need to give my body a rest from all the late nights in Chicago.  So the sacrifice I decided to make was to refrain from drinking for a month or so.  In April 2009 I decided I would last about 35 days which would coincide right before leaving for a trip to Europe in early May.  But mind you, I decided to give myself some ‘blackout dates’, actually 5 of them because I had some events to attend and plus it was my birthday and yes I have some weird rationale!  So I posted a note on Facebook proclaiming I would not drink alcohol during this time period and if anyone caught me breaking the rule I would donate $100 to charity.

Obviously when I posted a note like that on Facebook I should and did deserve a great deal of ridicule for giving myself ‘blackout dates’!  So a number of friends called me out – and said they would donate money to me that I could give to a charity if I went the entire time period without drinking except for my birthday.  With this a fundraising event began! My friends donated about $700 to me which I was able to double since my company matches charitable donations – and believe it or not I did last the 35 days, with the exception of my birthday.  After I got back from Europe I reached out to some friends because I really wanted to donate the money to a worthy organization that I would feel good  about giving the money too.

I ended donating half the money to a woman’s domestic abuse organization and then the rest to Open Books.  So one day last summer I went to the offices of Open Books to give my check.  1st thing I noticed were the piles and piles of boxes that contained books, then all the colorful walls, and just how eclectic the officers were but then immediately I blown away when I started talking to the various people who worked at Open Books.  You cannot but feel their passion oozing out of the body when they start talking about literacy in Chicago and then also about the amazing programs that Open Books run.  I was instantaneously hooked!  I had a great chat with Stacy, Dir of Development at Open Books and I walked away from Open Books feeling really good about the donation I had given.

I work in a small office with about 12 people – and I had been thinking for a while that I wanted to organize our first community day for the office.  Shortly after going to Open Books for the 1st time I helped with someone else from my office organize a community day at Open Books.  On that day half of the office came in for a poetry workshop with kids from a local school and the others helped with designing book clouds for the upcoming bookstore.  Everyone in the office had an amazing time and it was great to expose them to Open Books.

A few months later I was asked to join the inaugural Associate Board for Open Books.  It was just over 14 months ago that I had that fateful decision and look where that has led me – I can definitely say what a long strange trip it’s been but it is a trip that I grateful for and also excited about where it will lead.  So what is your strange trip that led you to Open Books………………………….