|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
When 9-year-old Heriberto Madrigal, now a professional librarian and nonprofit board officer, asked his father for a book, his dad, whose literacy was minimal and only in Spanish, pulled out some loose change so his son could buy “The Secrets of Nim” from a Scholastic book order.
His parents’ love and the compelling cover art were inspiring, but Madrigal, currently the board secretary for Literacy Partners – Menlo Park, wasn’t quite sure what to do with “Mim.” He never read the book or anything else recreationally for years. But “Mim,” sitting unread yet ever present on an otherwise nearly bookless shelf in Madrigal’s Belle Haven home, may have known what to do with Madrigal.
“At the start of ninth grade, I returned to tutor Belle Haven students at the joint-use library. Then at age 15 and a half, while at Menlo Atherton High School, I got a job at the downtown Menlo Park Library as a library page and won promotion to library assistant.”
In college, subsidized by the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, Madrigal considered a career in medicine. But that goal changed when in 2016, a young mom brought her baby to one of Madrigal’s story times. “She walked up to me and said, ‘I remember you read to my class and how much fun it was. I’m glad you’re still doing story times, now I can bring my daughter so she can see how much fun it is too.”
“That one comment from that young mom put 16 years of working at a library into perspective,” Madrigal said. Ready to change more lives in the way he understood best, he went on to finish his master’s degree in library information science and currently, at age 39, is a library supervisor on the Peninsula.
“I’m proud to be able to help level the playing field in sometimes forgotten patches of affluent Silicon Valley,” he said. “At 15 and a half I didn’t realize the entry-level library job would develop into a life-long passion to enrich people’s lives through literacy and life-long learning, especially for those from marginalized communities, like my family. Getting involved with organizations like Literacy Partners that support and help coordinate community literacy efforts is a natural next step,” said Madrigal.
Donations to The Almanac Holiday Fund benefit Literacy Partners – Menlo Park and nine other local nonprofits serving the community. For information, go to almanacnews.com/holiday_fund.
Madrigal is typical of his volunteer colleagues at Literacy Partners – Menlo Park, where team members combine past and current careers and experience in many areas with hands-on experience with local literacy. Treasurer John Schniedwind spent almost 30 years as an investment executive and portfolio manager at American Century Investments and Benham Management before becoming a one-on-one literacy tutor and an LPMP board member. He works closely with other LPMP team members with varied skills to find fiscally responsible opportunities to bring literacy to adults and kids, sometimes simultaneously.
Current and recent LPMP recipients include: East Palo Alto Kids (epak.org); All Five (allfive.org); JobTrain (jobtrainworks.org); StreetCode (streetcode.org); Ravenswood Classroom Partners (ravenswoodclassroompartners.org); Menlo Park Public Library (menlopark.gov/library).
“The organizations we support are quite different from one another, but broadly there is a theme: help families get a childhood head start or a later-in-life boost with education and services, the benefits so many people in tech- and income-rich Silicon Valley take for granted. When we level the playing field we help residents reap the rewards of their own efforts,” Madrigal explained.
As his career grows, Madrigal is glad that sometimes in his Belle Haven neighborhood, he is still greeted by former patrons with an enthusiastic, “Hey, Library Man.”
More information about LPMP is online at literacypartnersmenlopark.org. For questions or to discuss volunteer opportunities, contact info@literacypartnersmenlopark.org or Literacy Partners – Menlo Park, 1259 El Camino Real #176, Menlo Park, CA 94025.
Since expanding its mission in July 2021, LPMP has contributed more than $100,000 to thoughtfully selected local literacy programs. That mission will expand with community support.
Mike Goodkind is the president of Literacy Partners – Menlo Park.
Change of plans: Research campus to leave Menlo Park, make way for more housingJune 12, 2026 6:46 pm