Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories and the ideas shaping our community, from local innovators to everyday changemakers. We're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work and grow. Here's your host, nicole DiDonato.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Thank you for joining us for the Made in Walker podcast. Progress is moving along for the new Walker Library and, just in time for March's reading month, I'm joined by City of Walker Mayor Gary Carey Jr, our resident bookworm. Thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 3: 0:40

Well, I think I've been called worse today already. Thank you, that's good, thank you. So the Walker Library where do we stand right now with the new building? So outside looks really rough right now. There's a lot of site preparation being done and really in the earthwork that's being done and getting prep work done for the building the new building to go in, and then the connection to the existing building, the current building you'll notice that there's four walls in the steel structure of the roof and that's it and that was the design.

Speaker 3: 1:07

We want to repurpose that building. The bones of it are in great shape, but we knew we needed to make more efficient space inside there and it's a very practical building still. So we're just basically that's going to be redesigned and then the new building out in front connection between the two. We're probably going to be in the stage for a little while here. So it's going to look a little rough, especially as the snow starts to melt. But once we start to make progress out there and you see beams going in the ground and the foundation going in, we'll know at that point we're moving along pretty good.

Speaker 2: 1:38

Yeah, and you are someone who visits the library fairly frequently, so not having it directly next to City Hall or so, but how did you get involved with? March is Reading Month.

Speaker 3: 1:47

Well, a couple of things. One it comes with the mayor's role a little bit. There's that professional obligation and you know, a shout out. I think back to my first year in office.

Speaker 3: 1:57

Our police department officer Harkma was a great, just a great collaborator with and hey, I'm going over to these schools this day. He gave me a heads up that I could make sure I'd get on the schedule and join him, and then it's morphed into where the demand for all of us is so great from the schools that we all have our time scheduled. And so I got involved from that from a professional aspect, and then I looked too from a personal aspect, as it wasn't around when I was going through grade school. From a personal aspect, as it wasn't around when I was going through grade school, but when I look at my kids going through grade school it was becoming a more prominent feature then and they would encourage parents and grandparents and celebrities and community supporters to be able to come at that point. So it's kind of that professional and personal relationship that we get to do.

Speaker 2: 2:41

Yeah, and what specifically are going to be your goals for this March's reading month?

Speaker 3: 2:46

Probably the single biggest thing is promoting community engagement and you know from that is we're going to leverage this month. We'll talk a little bit about, I believe, some of the social media posts that we're going to do in promoting the campaign. And then I think secondly is build on the you know, good habits that people already have, maybe with the reading and reading to their kids, and then, if they don't have those in place, maybe we're going to be able to get people some starts and new habits from there in doing so.

Speaker 2: 3:13

And we have some exciting activities, too, that you have planned coming up. Any idea of what those are looking like as well?

Speaker 3: 3:18

Yeah. So what we're going to do is we're going to have a theme this month and it's going to be hashtag read and lead with the mayor. We're going to have a theme this month and it's going to be hashtag read and lead with the mayor. We're going to do it through the social media encouragement and throughout the month of March. I have already a jam schedule for the month of March. I will always make room for other schools that reach out and just it's one of the great privileges of being able to hold this role in serving the city and our community. So I'm really excited about that piece of it. But this hashtag Read and Lead with the Mayor is really helping again promote that.

Speaker 3: 3:49

This is not March is a bit of an event, but we want this to become a process that's throughout year round and excited to go to some of the schools with our again our public safety personnel, our police and fire teams and get to do this with them. I'm excited about that piece of it and what this is going to look like through the month and maybe that social media, that community support. I haven't seen anything done like this in West Michigan. So we're always in Walker. We're always trying to do some new things like podcasts and be at that forefront of things. So we're going to give this a try and see how this goes, and we'll see what next year brings then.

Speaker 2: 4:23

And the one thing I've noticed when talking about reading or bringing up March as reading month, is you really light up when that happens. This is something that's pretty personal for you. It has a backstory to it as well.

Speaker 3: 4:34

Sure, and I think one of the things and I'm very public about this I struggled around the 30-grade level with reading and was coming up through a public school system in West Michigan at that point in time and had really hit some challenges there with my developmental progress. And I had a great speech therapist teacher who was handling that time a guy named Jack Tabor and who has since passed away was great. He actually got me started on comic books and came from a family that my mom and dad read voraciously and we always had books laying around and I always saw them reading. So I had great role models in that perspective but just didn't want to do it in school and I was just one of those kids at the time and what's kind of neat was I got started with comic books and those comic books progressed into the classics and comic books and I remember reading Treasure Island, I think was the first one that I can remember and those just grew for that love of reading then and to this day we're just continuing to do it.

Speaker 3: 5:29

But I realized too we as community servants, community leaders, we fill a role sometimes where families get really busy and the parents are maybe working. You know one or two jobs to make ends meet and just schedules are what they are and they don't always get the time to be able to read to the kids. But I just I think we help fill some of those gaps and show the kids it's, it's, it's. This is a really good thing to do.

Speaker 2: 5:52

Yeah, I know you enjoy that so much and from the previous years of doing March's Reading Month are any certain points or success stories really kind of stick out.

Speaker 3: 6:02

I think one of the things that sticks out is the the leading by example piece with the kids is they get to see us doing it. I talk about the books that I read and the types of books and I said, when I need to kind of take a break, my vacation from things, they get to be fiction books, when they are nonfiction I'm reading for how to be a better leader, those types of books like that and really focus on making myself better but also give myself a little bit of a break. And I think that's good for the kids particularly to see that they can read these books and they kind of escape into the books and the stories behind them and the things that pique their interest. And just I think that's one of those things. You'd be in those. You're in those classrooms with the kids and sometimes in the library and you see, I mean you have their captive attention and I can't think of anything else really in life for children of those grade school ages. You have their attention.

Speaker 3: 6:54

And they're focused on you and they're making sure that they're catching everything that you're reading there.

Speaker 2: 7:00

Yeah, you compete with a lot there, but you have some interesting books that you like to share. What are those types of books that you usually read towards these classes? Interesting books that you like to share.

Speaker 3: 7:08

What are those types of books that you usually read towards these classes? Really a myriad of topics. My go-tos are I love Pete the Cat books. Those are just great because they've got some rhymes in them, great art and graphics on those they can't make enough of those to get, but that's always a go-to one. Love the Berenstain Bears books. Sometimes those are a little bit more challenging in a classroom setting. They're great from a lessons perspective. I know we grew up, my wife and I, reading to our kids and those never get old. And then really I think when the March's Reading Month started I believe it was like 1994, and they picked March because it was Dr Seuss's birthday month. If I remember how the story goes, you can't go wrong with Dr Seuss. So some of the old classics in there and stuff and I swear we have 40, 50 of them I don't know how many there are in our house that you can always dig into those and those you can't go wrong there?

Speaker 2: 8:02

Absolutely so. You've got the Dr Seuss, you've got the kids' books and such. What are the ones that have really inspired you to be a leader? Is there any one that kind of sticks out?

Speaker 3: 8:10

Oh, wow, I do like the stories with the imagination and seeing the kids escape a bit. And I think Pete the Cat's done a lot around food items and things and Pete's is always one of the favorite books that you read with the kids and you can just see the kids escape into the world. So I thinking that they're not paying attention to you, they're paying attention to the story is really a neat thing and that's part of that whole purpose of reading, of being able to become really engaged with that book and the story there. So that's, I think, with the kids. For professional side of things, two of my favorite books are both Simon Sinek books Start With why. Anybody that's around me professionally personally knows that that is a that, why, how and what.

Speaker 3: 8:58

The Mayor's Youth Academy hears it you know, every month in their meeting in the Next Gen Academy for the Adults. They're going to start hearing it here in the coming months that there's this theme. So it's a great book. Just you know how to present better, but really how to become stronger critical thinkers. And then Cynic also has a second book, Leaders Eat Last, and I think from as a mayor of a city, that is, it's one of those things that I take a bit of pride in. When we have our community events, our employee events, I'm usually the last one, try to be the last one that goes up and gets to eat, because you've got to make sure everybody else eats first, and really that's what leaders, that's that moral responsibility they have. So I think there's two really good foundational aspects with both of those books.

Speaker 2: 9:38

Well, as you were talking about all this, maybe some people in the community want to know how they can actually get involved with this Read and Lead with the mayor.

Speaker 3: 9:45

So we're going to do the throughout the month. We'll do hashtag, lead and Read with the mayor. So we're going to encourage people just to do as they're doing it in their family settings, social settings. What have you I'm going to do this month? For the month of March, do something. On Saturday mornings We'll do a little Facebook live action. You know, I kind of miss one of the things, one of the very, very few things I missed about the pandemic, other than getting to spend more time with family at that juncture. But the thing with the pandemic piece is going to be, you know, that big takeaway there was being able to we read every day, because it started in March of 2020. And those kids are at home or in the classrooms. Even at that point they couldn't have guests come in. So every morning, read books.

Speaker 3: 10:28

Somewhere between 6 and 7.30 in the morning did the Facebook Live and that was out there for the kids to be able to watch wherever they were at at that point. So we're going to go back to that, do it Saturday morning here for this month and just again help promote. Maybe if I can catch them before they get the cartoons on TV great, yes, yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:43

Well, we can look for some more information on our social media pages website as well. You also have a social media page for the mayor. Absolutely, and what?

Speaker 3: 10:50

we'll do this month, too, is we'll do that hashtag. This will all be out there on the Facebook and the other social media platforms. But what we'll do, probably at the end of the month, is we're going to find the best post throughout the month, maybe most creative. We'll apply some type of logic to it and we'll have a couple of gift cards, one for Sobe Meats and the other Double Dip Depot. It's going to open soon. I know it seems hard because we're at the end of winter right now. It's right around the corner. So we'll do some things to help and send people to be a part of this engagement in the community. But I just I'll really encourage the parents. This is a time to really show the kids, hey, this is a lifelong learning journey that we're on, and just because you get to be at a certain age doesn't mean that you stop doing that Right, right, yeah, and your story is very inspiring.

Speaker 2: 11:33

Just knowing how it started out for you and I can attest to that I see you with books all the time. We're turning it to the library, so that is all about it with you. But again, that hashtag is read and lead with the mayor and that's where you can kind of your pictures, if you're sharing those pictures have that post and that hashtag.

Speaker 3: 11:51

I encourage everybody to do that.

Speaker 2: 11:52

Yeah, very exciting, Mayor Carey. We're excited to see that happen.

Speaker 3: 11:55

Great, thank you.

Speaker 2: 11:56

And thank you so much for tuning in to this Maiden Walker podcast.

Speaker 1: 12:04

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Maiden Walker podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walkercity. Made in Walker is the official podcast of the city of Walker, Michigan. You can find Made in Walker wherever you get your podcasts.