The Light Between the Pages

When Eileen Flaherty first stepped into a Boys & Girls Club in Chicago, it wasn’t planned.

She was in town to watch her son play baseball for the Cardinals against the Cubs. Between games, she found herself on a tour led by Barreto Club’s Senior Club Director, Jeremy Murphy. What was meant to be a quick visit became something much deeper.

“There was just something about him,” she recalled. “You could tell this wasn’t a job for him. It was his calling.”

At the time, Eileen had just completed her master’s degree in leadership with a concentration in servant leadership. The conversation that day stayed with her. She sent Jeremy some of her favorite books on leadership afterward, dog-eared copies filled with notes, and a few powerful passages from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that she had used in her thesis. Jeremy later told her those same lines found their way into youth leadership meetings and staff trainings.

Years passed. Eileen continued her community work, focusing on literacy, foster families, and sensory inclusion, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Jeremy’s Club.

“He just wouldn’t leave my mind,” she said with a laugh. “It was like God kept nudging me to reach out.”

So she did.

A few months ago, she sent him a message. She wanted to come back and donate books to his Club. Jeremy wrote back almost immediately.

“I was just thinking about you.”

When Eileen arrived at the Barreto Club this summer, her car was packed to the brim. Boxes filled with hundreds of books she had personally curated. Young readers. Middle-grade adventures. Graphic novels. Bilingual stories. Titles that tackled emotional safety and boundaries. She also brought twelve sets of noise-canceling headphones for the Club’s reading nook.

She calls it “meeting kids where they are.”

“We never tell people what they need,” she said. “We ask. That’s how you serve.”

Eileen had spent years working with children in foster care and community organizations around the country. She knew that reading doesn’t begin with a requirement. It begins with a feeling. Choice. Dignity. A book that belongs to you.

That afternoon, Torch and Keystone Club members gathered in the gym. They opened each box, placed stickers inside the covers, sorted books by age, and laid them out across long tables. One by one, children entered the room to choose a story to take home.

Every member left with at least one book. Many left with two.

“I wanted them to feel ownership,” Eileen said. “To hold that book and know, this is mine.”

After the photos, a small girl climbed into Eileen’s lap and whispered, “You’re the best parent ever.” Another child, during a previous visit in St. Louis, once said words Eileen will never forget.

“Reading is like sunshine.”

Those words have followed her ever since.

“Kids have this beautiful way of naming what we’ve all forgotten,” she said. “They remind you that when you give, you receive even more. I call it selfish joy, because what I get back from them, it’s a hundredfold.”

Her approach to giving has inspired new traditions. Some Clubs now reward reading achievements with books instead of prizes. Others are developing sensory-friendly spaces that make it easier for children to read and regulate.

“Sometimes,” she said, “a quiet corner and a good story are all a child needs to feel safe.”

Eileen believes the magic lies not in the number of books donated, but in the intention behind them. She loves telling people that one book is enough.

“If every person gave just one book, we’d build a library overnight,” she said. “You don’t have to do everything. You just have to do something.”

Today, she continues to support Boys & Girls Clubs and small community organizations across the country, from Detroit to St. Louis, often purchasing books locally to support independent bookstores.

“Every stop is the same,” she said. “You walk in with a box of books and walk out lighter, because the kids give you back so much joy.”

The library at the Barreto Club now holds hundreds of new stories and the quiet hum of discovery. It is a place of calm, imagination, and pride.

“I’ll be back next year,” Eileen said. “There’s still work to be done and more light to share.”

Because for Eileen Flaherty, reading isn’t just about turning pages.

It’s about turning hearts toward possibility.

And as one child reminded her, reading is, indeed, like sunshine.