The good Cornellians can do: Don Patterson ’94, MEng ’95

When he became an empty nester, Don Patterson '94, MEng '95 decided to take a more active role in his Santa Barbara community—to help preserve the things he loved about living there. After teaching for 25 years and raising four children, Don was well acquainted with the local library. He scoped out a volunteer role on the city’s Library Board—and found that it was a perfect fit.

Don is one of five elected community members who serve on the board. In a nutshell, their role is to ensure that the library and its programs are meaningfully serving the community. As a board member, Don helps organize the library volunteer hours, support adult and child literacy, and create programs that engage people with reading.

He is especially proud of the library’s Reading Ambassadors program, a peer-to-peer literacy effort.

“The program began over a decade ago when two young mothers came into the central library asking for adult literacy tutors, with six young children in tow. When one of the moms struggled with a simple text, her eight-year-old stepped up beside her and proudly read it aloud,” Don explains. “That moment kickstarted an approach to engage the whole family as literacy builders.”

The library worked with experts to build out a slate of literacy programs for people of all ages. For example, librarians work directly with second graders, encouraging them to be role models and read aloud for the younger children in their lives. Each year the mayor, city council, and library board members attend the Reading Ambassadors graduation ceremony.

“The kids realize that what they’ve done is maybe important when the actual mayor shows up,” Don says. “It's a great program that showcases that, while the library may be rooted in books, the impact is much broader.”

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