Access books adorns Samo library with murals

At the beginning of this past summer, the organization, Access Books, painted murals in the Samo library with student volunteers from Samo and other schools around Los Angeles. Access Books was founded by Rebecca Constantino in 1999. Their goal is to increase literacy by donating books to the libraries of inner city schools whose students often live below the poverty line and also painting murals to beautify the libraries. Constantino founded this organization with the hopes of averting the school library crisis: California has been one of the states with the lowest budget for libraries for the past 40 years. Because of this, many California schools do not get enough funding to have a functional school library. Since the founding of the organization, they have donated more than 1.6 million books. Access Books has serviced over 300 school libraries and more than 18,000 students have volunteered for the program.  The Samo students involved in painting Samo’s mural were Claire Freedman (’20) Sydney Sobel (’20), Siri Storstein (’20), Katarina Ceguerra (’21) and Christine Shimahara (’20). Access Books also took Freedman and Eleanor Hutman (’20) to Puerto Rico where they built and painted a library. Freedman has volunteered for Access Books for 5 years and in that time, has painted over 50 murals. Working with Access Books has brought her to impoverished neighborhoods and schools with homeless students. “Its a strong, fulfilling feeling producing something that can make someone smile. You meet people from all different backgrounds [and] different communities. I think many of us can have negative preconceived notions [about] the poor and the homeless, often influenced by the media. But sitting down and having a conversation can be the best way to change your perspective,” Freedman said. Access Books ordinarily only focuses on inner city schools and a donation of books usually accompanies the mural painting. Samo is neither in need of donations nor an inner city school, and therefore is not a typical school for Access Books to come to. However, Constantino has children who are currently enrolled in SMMUSD schools and has been an active member of the SMMUSD community. Also, many of the organizations’ frequent volunteers are Samo students, and this mural acted as their way of giving back to their own community.