Last week I wrote about how things sometimes, inexplicably, show up in your life at the right time. That same phenomenon happened this week when I read a fascinating book called The Giver of Stars (suggested by a reader – thank you 💜) and then received a link from another of our readers (also thank you 💜) to a story of a 10 year old named Orion Jean. Read on. I promise there is a connection.
The Pack Horse Library
In 1935, during the Great Depression, eastern Kentuckians lived a life of poverty in the rugged and poorest areas of Appalachia. Times were tough. Rough hewn cabins, outdoor plumbing, little or no electricity or refrigeration. Most of the men, and many of the young boys, emerged daily, coughing, with blackened faces from the dangerous coal mines. Women were an afterthought. More than 30% were illiterate.
FDR had launched the New Deal, which included a project called The Pack Horse Library…. a project that was championed by his outspoken wife, Eleanor.
The Pack Horse Women
Mining and the railroads were bringing industrialization and opportunity to Kentucky. Impoverished Kentuckians were hungry to learn to read as a way out of their poverty. The Pack Horse Library was an answer to their prayers.
63% of the population had no access to a library or books of any kind. The Pack Horse Library was a 4-legged effort to deliver reading materials to rural, mountainous Kentucky.
Used books and magazines poured in from all over the country and local Kentucky women were hired at $28/month (the equivalent of $513 today) to be Pack Horse Women.
They repaired the books, made recipe cards and scrapbooks from torn pages. Then they stuffed the saddlebags on their horses and mules and rode out into the Kentucky wilderness, across gurgling creeks and into treacherous, moonshine mountainsides to deliver, pick up, and recirculate the materials to rural Kentuckians. They were determined to help the poor improve their lives through reading.
Riding more than 120 miles a week, they served more than 50,000 families and were often greeted by the children, who would take the books and then read to their illiterate parents.
Newspapers in 1935 wrote:
“The intelligence of the Kentucky mountaineer is keen … honest, truthful and God-fearing, he grasped and clung to the Pack Horse Library idea with all the tenacity of one starved for learning.”
The Giver of Stars, by JoJo Moyes, is a fictional story of the Pack Horse Women and how their kindness changed the lives of so many in eastern Kentucky.
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Orion Jean
In 2020 (86 years later) Orion Jean was just 9 years old, living with his family in Fort Worth, Texas. I’m pretty sure he had never heard of the Pack Horse Women. He entered and won $500 in a National Kindness Speech Contest with a 90 second video about kindness. In his speech he focused on
“kindness is easy, it can be free, and it can make someone’s day a whole lot better.”
The Race to 500 Toys
Not content to just spend his winnings, he decided to start an initiative called The Race to Kindness. His first project – the race to donate 500 toys to the Children’s Health Hospital in Dallas. With community support and his $500 he blew away his goal with 619 toys.
The Race to Provide 100,000 Meals
For his second project, Orion partnered with a local relief group, Tango Tab, to collect and distribute 100,000 meals to needy Texans. This kid was becoming a star.
The Race to 500,000 Children’s Books
Most recently, Orion launched another Race to Kindness, this time to provide 500,000 children’s books to those who have limited access to books. Instead of horses and saddlebags, he collaborated with literacy groups to meet the goal. He has been named one of American’s top community volunteers for 2021 by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. In my humble opinion, Orion is a modern day Pack Horse Person.
“If you treat someone with a little kindness and with a little care,” Orion said, “hopefully it will be returned back to you. And even if it doesn’t, it can make you feel better knowing that someone else feels better.”
Sometimes I think that we feel as if we can’t really make a difference. After all, we’re just one person. Maybe it isn’t 500 toys, or 100,000 meals, or 500,000 books. But if we look around us and see a need, there is always an opportunity to give kindness, no matter how small.
Orion says that kindness isn’t just a one-time thing. Or a 3-times thing. Or even a big thing. Kindness lasts for years and years. And despite all of the things that change around us, there is one thing that never changes. Kindness.
I think I just learned a lot from a 10 year old.
PS - Check out Orion’s website for more information about The Race to Kindness.
May your week be filled with kindness. 💜
Did you know about the Pack Horse Women? Or Orion Jean? Let me know in the comments below.
Orion Jean and the Pack Horse Women