Reflections on Kathy Kaplan's Citizen of the Year Ceremony, Colin Mills, March 12, 2014

When RCA revived the Citizen of the Year award in 2008, we intended to spotlight the terrific work done by community volunteers who too often go unrecognized.  This year’s selection, Kathy Kaplan, definitely falls in that tradition.  I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who complimented me on our choice.  I told them that Kathy deserves the credit; she’s the one who’s been working for the community for decades.  But nonetheless, I was glad to give Kathy some well-deserved accolades at our ceremony Monday night.

Kathy reminds me of our 2011 Citizen of the Year, Nick Brown.  Both are modest folks who prefer to work behind the scenes, avoiding the spotlight.  I was glad we turned the spotlight on Nick then, just as I’m glad we gave Kathy recognition this time around.

In my opening remarks, I noted that Kathy shows what individual citizens can accomplish through hard work and a dedication to the community’s best interests.  If it hadn’t been for her love of libraries and her willingness to pore through long and complicated government documents, we might never have heard of the Beta Plan, the book culling, or the budget cuts to our County library system.  It’s easy to believe that individuals are powerless against big institutions; Kathy showed that it’s not true.

RCA’s Terry Maynard, who nominated Kathy for the award, began with an excerpt from a letter Kathy wrote last summer, discussing a book of poetry she found at the library and expressing her fear that it would be thrown away, like thousands of other County library books in recent years.  For Kathy, the fate of our libraries isn’t an abstract concern; it’s personal.

Terry then walked the audience through all that Kathy did, from reading thousands of pages about the County’s library plans, to writing letters to County officials opposing the library cuts, to reaching out to librarians and library friends groups, to meeting with County supervisors, to gathering over 2,000 signatures on an online petition calling for the library system to re-evaluate its Strategic Plan. 

Clearly, it took a lot of people coming together to convince the Library Board and the Board of Supervisors to stop the Beta Plan and the destruction of books.  But as Terry’s speech made clear, there may be no single person who did more than Kathy Kaplan.

Kathy’s library efforts were the focus of the ceremony, but she has contributed much more to Reston than that.  The next two speakers celebrated some of Kathy’s other good works in the community.

ARCH President Jerry Volloy gave a very emotional speech about Kathy’s contribution to the 9/11 memorial at Brown’s Chapel Park.  He described how, as RA CEO, he led an effort to create a memorial to that awful day (2 Restonians lost their lives in the attacks).  He explained that they created a row of trees and bushes to create a memorial garden, and how the bronze plaques sculpted by Kathy provided the perfect complement to the natural beauty on display.  He noted that one of the plaques included an image of a caterpillar and a butterfly, to symbolize the renewal of life.  Kathy is an artist as well as an activist, and Jerry’s tribute was a fitting celebration of that side of her.

After Jerry spoke, up stepped Connie Hartke, who is on the boards of both RCA and Rescue Reston, the group fighting to save the Reston National Golf Course.  Connie described how nervous she was when she first became active with Rescue Reston a year ago, because she wasn’t up to speed on community issues.  Kathy helped her get informed, and provided invaluable research and information to Rescue Reston.  Connie noted that two of the community’s most valuable assets are the Freedom of Information Act and Kathy, who knows how to use it.

RCA’s Tammi Petrine spoke next; she noted that not only does Kathy read those long and boring documents most of us can’t be bothered with – she understands them!  A valuable skill indeed.  Tammi updated the audience on the ongoing threats to the library system, including a resumption of the book culling and further budget cuts.  She urged everyone to stay involved and continue to support our libraries and our librarians.

When Kathy spoke, she emphasized the importance of libraries in her life.  She grew up in a town where the nearest library was 10 miles away, and she walked there if she had to in order to get her fill of books.  (She described “The Summer of L. Frank Baum,” when she read all the Oz books.  When she moved to Reston in 1983, she treasured our library; even though it was tiny, she took home a giant stack of books every time she went.

Kathy noted that the real heroes of last year are the librarians, some of whom were in attendance to celebrate her award.  She praised them for having the courage to stand up and comment at meetings, and to write letters in their own names, even at the risk of retribution.  She herself, she said, just “caused as much trouble as possible.”

Those of us who know Kathy know how good she is at causing trouble.  And thank goodness for that; a healthy community needs citizens who aren’t afraid to make noise.  We need the Kathy Kaplans of the world, people who are willing to slog through official records and speak out when they see something wrong.  Engaged citizens like Kathy keep our officials honest, and make sure that our institutions keep the best interests of the people at heart.

Thanks to Terry for a thoughtful nomination.  Thanks as always to Leila Gordon and RCC for hosting the event and displaying the award plaque.  And a special thanks to the Harris Teeter over at the Spectrum and Wegman’s in Fairfax for their contributions to the food for our reception.  And congratulations to Kathy Kaplan, a quiet woman who knows how to make noise, and who might just have saved our library system.

2013 RCA Citizen of the Year Kathy Kaplan with RCA Board members (from left)
Terry Maynard, Yavuz Inanli, George Kain, Colin Mills, Tammi Petrine, and Connie Hartke

RCA Award Ceremony Comments Recognizing Kathy W. Kaplan as Reston Citizen of the Year for 2013, March 10, 2014, Terry Maynard

. . . Who doesn’t remember, “By the shores of Gitche Gumme, / By the shining Big-Sea-Water, / Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, / Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.”

I found Susan Jeffers’ illustrated Hiawatha at Reston Regional in with the other children’s poetry.  Much of that collection has been culled, sold away, or burned.  Now that my granddaughter knows from reading this edition of Longfellow that there are many more poems in the original Hiawatha, she wants to hear them all.  Luckily, I have a copy of the entire epic poem.

But this little book, the one we read at bedtime last week, I worry about.  When I take it back to the library will some wet-behind-the ears library page pull it for disposal because it’s old?  Inside the book it says it was published in 1908.  Library Director Sam Clay is having library pages pull old books.  Under the Beta Plan, a front-line librarian will not see this book again before it goes to the dumpster. Will the kid know that this is a recent printing?  Will the kid ever have heard of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?   Will there ever be another child who reads these words from this very book, “Listen my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.”

I cannot bring myself to take it back to the library.  The fate of this one book is important to me.  It should be important to you. . . .

Those words written in a letter last August by our 2013 Reston Citizen of the Year, Kathy Kaplan, capture her passion for our library books, especially poetry and books for children. 

Kathy translated that passion into action that led to changes in the fate of the County’s public libraries.  So it was with great pleasure, honor, and admiration that I nominated Kathy to be RCA’s 2013 Reston Citizen of the Year for her exceptional efforts to stop a Fairfax County Public Library Strategic Plan to downgrade its libraries in the name of organizational efficiency.  As one of two “guinea pigs” for this strategic plan, Reston Regional Library was ground zero for this planned degradation. 

The key features of the ill-considered County library strategic plan included:

• Reducing the library budget by a third over the last six years;
• Culling books throughout the system, some 400,000 of which have already been destroyed;
• Drastically reducing the library staff, including plans to reduce the Reston staff by one-third;
• De-professionalizing  library staff requirements by replacing certified librarians with “customer service specialists” who would not need to be knowledgeable of library science; and
• Eliminating Youth Services—children’s librarians and collections—throughout the library system.

Without Kathy’s leadership, unswerving dedication, and perseverance, the County’s libraries would likely still be on a downward spiral with our Reston Regional Library as one of two “guinea pigs” in that effort.  Her extraordinary efforts were singularly consistent with Reston’s goal of providing a high quality of life for people of all backgrounds and was, in fact, the inspiration for an August 2013 RCA Board of Directors resolution calling on the Board of Supervisors to abandon its wrong-headed library strategic plan. 

Among her activities beginning last summer:

• She identified and worked with County librarians and other library friends deeply concerned about the County strategic plan;
• She conducted extensive research on the County library’s plan and activities, including acquiring thousands of pages of papers through FOIA that documented the destruction of more than 400,000 books in recent years and other library plan activities and intentions;
• She met with and wrote letters and e-mails to County senior staff and elected officials, community organizations, and media noting the ongoing and planned decimation of our libraries;
• She encouraged residents to sign an online petition calling for the Library’s Trustees to stop and re-evaluate the Strategic Plan, a petition that ultimately garnered more than 2,000 signatures;
• She acquired and shared photographs of the books thrown in a central library operations dumpster that led County Board Supervisor Patty Smyth to personally visit the site, bring back several current books in good condition, and direct senior County officials to stop destroying books; and
• At the request of the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations Board, she drafted a report on the library Strategic Plan that detailed its intentions and impacts.

As a result of her efforts and the efforts of those she worked with, the Library Board of Trustees recommended and the County Board of Supervisors approved on November 18, 2013, a resolution “to eliminate the process that led to the trashing of hundreds of thousands of books and also throw out a controversial plan to reduce the number of librarians and children’s services in county branches,” as reported by the Washington Post.

We all recognize the effort to rehabilitate our County libraries is far from over, indeed, the County is proposing further budget cuts for our libraries, but at least the worst of the hemorrhaging of books, budgets, and staff has been stopped for the time being.  We all have Kathy Kaplan and her compatriots to thank for this excellent effort.  And we know that Kathy and others will continue their extraordinary efforts to rehabilitate our once excellent library system into one that will serve us, our children, and even our grandchildren for decades to come. 

Thank you, Kathy.  You have more than earned our gratitude and recognition for your exceptional personal efforts in saving our libraries.

Colin Mills: Announcing RCA’s 2013 Citizen of the Year, RestonNow, January 30, 2014

It’s time once again for one of my favorite duties as RCA President: announcing our Citizen of the Year.

With so many dedicated citizens doing good work in the Reston community, I am delighted that we can honor some of those well-deserving folks. I love reading the nominations we receive, and learning about the citizen volunteers that make Reston such a special place.

RCA is all about the power of Reston’s committed citizens to achieve great things. It may be fashionable to be cynical about what individuals and citizen groups can accomplish in a world of big bureaucracies and institutions. But RCA is built on the belief that with hard work and dedication, our citizens can move mountains.

This year’s winner is a shining example of that belief in action. It gives me great pleasure to announce Kathy Kaplan as our 2013 Citizen of the Year.Kathy joins a proud tradition of RCA Citizen of the Year award dating back to 1976; people like Embry Rucker, Janet Howell, Jim Allred, Claudia Thompson-Deahl, Dave Edwards, and last year’s winner, Cate Fulkerson.  As you know if you’re familiar with this award, the criteria for selection are as follows:

1. The nominee has been a Reston resident for at least 5 years.
2. The nominee’s actions are consistent with the goals of Reston, and of RCA.
3. The nominee’s actions have contributed to the quality of life in Reston.
4. People in need of help have benefited from the nominee’s actions.
5. The nominee’s deeds were done without thought of personal benefit or recognition.
6. The nominee is not currently serving as an elected public official or a member of the Board of a major community organization (RA, RCA, or RCC).

Kathy is the sort of active, engaged citizen that every community needs. She reads the kind of long, boring official documents that most of us can’t be bothered with. Sometimes, those documents contain some interesting surprises.  For instance, in the spring of 2013, Kathy found out about plans that had the potential to do serious damage to Fairfax County libraries.

This included the infamous “Beta Plan.” You may have read about it last summer and fall.  RCA passed a resolution opposing it last August.  If you have heard about it, you can thank Kathy for you dedication perseverance, and leadership in bringing the plan to light.

Through research, conversations with knowledgeable sources, and numerous FOIA requests, Kathy uncovered a grim picture of the future of our library system. In addition to the Beta Plan – which would have slashed library staff, de-professionalized position requirements, and eliminated specialized positions for youth librarians – Kathy discovered that the library budget had been reduced by a third over the last six years.  Even worse, she discovered that the library had reduced the size of their collection by a quarter-million items since 2005, and that many books in good condition were being thrown in dumpsters and destroyed.  Not donated to book sales or given away to charities – destroyed.

As a longtime book lover, Kathy was rightly horrified at what she learned.  But she didn’t just write a letter to the editor or grumble about it under her breath. No, she swung into action. She identified county librarians and library supporters who were also concerned about the changes, and worked with them to get the word out. She wrote emails and letters to County officials, community organizations, and media outlets.  She helped get over 2,000 signatures on a petition to stop the Beta Plan. She met with County staffers and elected officials to learn more about the library issue and to show them what she had found out.

The turning point for the issue came when Kathy acquired and shared photos of library books sitting in a dumpster.  This had been alleged previously, but now there was visual evidence. These photos led Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth to do some dumpster diving of her own; when she retrieved books in good condition that had been thrown out, the resulting outcry really focused attention on the problems in our libraries.

Thanks to the efforts of Kathy and her colleagues, the Library Board and the Board of Supervisors voted to eliminate both the book-trashing program and the Beta Plan. With continued public support, we should see the library’s funding restored in future County budgets as well. This was a tremendous win for citizen activism, and it wouldn’t have happened without  Kathy’s dedication and tireless work.

Since Kathy is a Restonian and the Reston Regional Library was one of the targets for the Beta Plan, RCA was one of the first organizations she contacted with her discoveries. When she shared what she had learned, frankly, our first reaction was disbelief. How could this be happening to such a valuable county resource? But when we followed up and discovered that what Kathy said was true, we were gratified that Kathy had done the leg work and let us know about the Beta Plan and the book-culling before it was too late to act.

If the only thing that Kathy did for Reston was her library activism, it would have been enough to make her a deserving Citizen of the Year. But Kathy is a longtime Restonian, and she has done much more for the community.  She has served as an interpretive naturalist at the Vernon Walker Nature Center, and she has taught art workshops to kids at RA camps.  She is an award-winning author and illustrator.  And she has created bronze relief sculptures for the Sept. 11 Memorial at Brown’s Chapel, and the Woodland Gardens at the Walker Center. Kathy is a woman of many talents.

We will be honoring Kathy in a ceremony at RCC Hunters Woods in the coming weeks.  I’ll share the date and time as soon as it is finalized.  I hope you’ll join us to honor a woman who showed that you can fight City Hall – and that individual citizens can make a big difference in our community.

Colin Mills is the president of Reston Citizens Association.

RCA Honors Kathy Kaplan as Reston's 2013 Citizen of the Year

At Monday night's Board meeting, RCA officially selected Kathy Kaplan as the 2013 Citizen of the Year.  Kathy was recognized for her tireless and dedicated efforts to stop the proposed library "Beta Plan" and protect Fairfax County's libraries from cuts to funding, staff, and collections.  Below is the is the text of Kathy's nomination, submitted by Terry Maynard.

With great pleasure, honor, and admiration, I nominate Kathy W. Kaplan for RCA’s 2013 Reston Citizen of the Year for her exceptional work in stopping a Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) Strategic Plan to undermine its libraries in the name of organizational efficiency. As one of two “guinea pigs” for this strategic plan, Reston Regional Library was ground zero for this degradation. The key features of the ill- considered County library strategic plan included:

• Reducing the County library budget by a third over the last six years;
• Culling books throughout the system, a quarter-million of which had already been destroyed;
• Drastically reducing the library staff, including plans to reduce the Reston staff by one-third;
• De-professionalizing library staff requirements by replacing certified librarians with “customer service specialists” who may or may not be knowledgeable of library science; and
• Eliminating Youth Services—librarians and collections—throughout the library system. 

Without Kathy’s leadership, unswerving dedication, and perseverance, the County’s libraries would likely still be on a downward spiral with the Reston Regional Library as a “guinea pig” in that effort. Kathy’s extraordinary efforts were singularly consistent with Reston’s goal of providing a high quality of life for people of all backgrounds and was, in fact, an inspiration for  an August 2013 RCA Board of Directors resolution calling on the Board of Supervisors to abandon its wrong-headed FCPL Plan.

Among her activities beginning this summer and fall:

• She identified and began to work with County librarians and other library friends deeply concerned about implementation of the County strategic plan;
• She wrote letters and e-mails to County officials, community organizations, and media (including an interview with the Washington Post) noting the planned decimation of the libraries;
• She encouraged residents to  sign an online petition calling for the County Library Trustees to stop and re-evaluate the Strategic Plan before implementing the “beta plan” for Reston, a petition that ultimately garnered more than 2,000 signatures;
• She  acquired and shared photographs of the books thrown in a central library operations dumpster that led Supervisor Patty Smyth to personally visit the site, bring back several current books in good condition, which she showed to senior library and County officials whom she told to stop destroying books
• She conducted extensive research on the County library’s plan and activities, including a review of eight years of County Library Trustee minutes
• She acquired through FOIA requests at considerable personal expense important FCPL documents detailing the destruction of more than a 400,000 books in recent years
• At the request of the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations (FCFCA), she drafted an FCFCA report on the FCPL Strategic Plan that detailed the Strategic Plan and its impacts; and 
• She met with senior County staff and elected officials several times to learn more about the strategic plan and to share the results of her research.

As a result of her efforts and the efforts of those she worked with, the Library Board of Trustees recommended and the County Board of Supervisors approved on November 18, 2013, a resolution “to eliminate the process that led to the trashing of hundreds of thousands of books and also throw out a controversial plan to reduce the number of librarians and children’s services in county branches.” The Trustees are to come to the Board with their further recommendations early next year.

Reston Regional Library is the County’s busiest library with circulation exceeding one million items per year despite its small size and outdated facilities.  It is a focal point for community access not only to books and magazines, but to online subscription services not readily available to residents. It has a substantial children’s wing vital to exposing small children to the joys and knowledge of reading. It also emphasizes the needs of new citizens and those with handicaps.