Though she is no longer in a classroom, a longtime educator has found numerous ways to share her love of reading.
With a nostalgic holdover from her family’s past, Lisa Gerard, of Norman, distributes free books to children and adults at laundromats, homeless outreach events, local parks, early childhood centers and other places.
Gerard, 55, founded the nonprofit Little Read Wagon as a way to fulfill her mission to help close the literacy gap often created by poverty. And by filling her children’s Little Tykes Lil Wagon with books, Gerard is spreading a love of reading and books with community members, particularly marginalized groups.
Gerard said the name for her organization came to her the first time she took some of the books she had accumulated over 20 years of teaching and placed them in the iconic red wagon her children loved when they were small. She said that first time, she was heading to distribute books at a Laundry Love outreach at a local laundromat.
