ABC-7 Do- Gooder: El Pasoan exchanges books for smiles

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- An El Pasoan is spreading the joy of reading books to children through her work at a bookstore with a special mission.

"The idea came about out of a tragedy," said Susan Patterson.

That idea is "Books are Gems."

Susan Patterson is the bookstore's manager.

"The founder, Miss Paula Madrid, she was a teacher in South El Paso, and her teenage daughter passed away tragically in a car accident. and her daughter loved to read, so she wanted to honor her daughter," said Patterson. "So she started collecting books."

Susan is helping honor her memory.

"It's grown into this just great resource for, for children and adults to to read."

"Books are gems" is a non-profit organization.

"The best thing is seeing a book that you read when you were a child" said Patterson. "We have all of these books right here. They're just waiting to be put on the shelf."

It's been around for more than 20 years. And it's books fly of the shelves.

"We probably have close to 200 people come in a week, and get books for their children, or themselves, or their classroom."

The bookstore offers up to 9 free books a week.

Susan also helps bring stories to life by organizing weekly story hours to capture the imagination of children including Saturday story time on Facebook live.

"It's really a lot of fun to see the kids, participate with the reader and everything." said Patterson. "It just brings great joy to help these kids learn how to read and sometimes help their parents as well."

Susan's willingness to help readers of all ages navigate book genres has earned her the title of this month's ABC-7's Do-Gooder, rewarding her charity of choice with $1,000 from the El Paso Community Foundation.

Susan will donate the award money to non-profit "Books are gems" to keep the literacy efforts.

"It it feels really good. I mean, a lot of people don't realize, how many people don't have access to free books or free teaching materials, and we're just trying to help out the community, teach their children to lead and be to read and be successful and, lead some productive lives."

"Books are gems" accepts book donations including children's books, adult books, and curriculum for the teachers. Because of community response books for gems has made donations to Ruidoso libraries that faced damages after recent flooding.

You can nominate someone who makes a difference in the community like Susan for ABC-7 Do-Gooder. Just follow this link to the submission form on here.

ABC-7's Do-Gooder is sponsored by the El Paso Community Foundation and Gozo's Ice cream.