Published Monday, December 23, 2002
By Sherris Moreira-Byers
Herald Staff Writer
Some people wait for a certain day or holiday to make a difference in their community. But a Sharon man's spirit of Christmas giving knows no holiday season, as the staff at the Shenango Valley Community Library can attest to.
Robert Paulson, 38, of 476 Tamplin St., Sharon, has spent at least the past dozen years donating books, videos and magazine subscriptions to the library mostly out of his own pocket money.
"I love to read. I have a collection that's almost embarrassing," said the D'Onofrio Food Center floor manager and general "go-to guy."
"I live just around the corner. I just decided it's my way of giving back to a place I spend a lot of time at."
The items he gives to the library reflects his many interests, which include science fiction and World War II.
"I'm very interested in history. I grew up on a rich diet of dime novels and radio programs. I know there's a lot of veterans in the valley -- my grandfather served in the Pacific during World War II," Paulson said, pointing to a pile of World War II magazines and non fiction books in the library that he donated.
A former member of the local chapter of Star Fleet, an international Star Trek organization, he has purchased many of the Star Trek and Star Wars novels in the library. He explained that when the organization existed, they donated to a lot of people in need and agencies such as AW/ARE. They also donated items to the library.
"The group disbanded a couple of years ago. At the time it started a lot of us were young and working part-time, but after awhile a lot of us got married and went from working 20 hours to 46 hours a week. We couldn't find time to get together," he said, adding he continued to donate books and other items himself and had done so himself, even when the Star Trek group was making donations.
"Once in a while you have a few extra bucks. I put it into a Disney video or buy one extra Star Trek book," Paulson said. "I know people say 'Trekkies -- you need to get a life' -- well, I do have a life. This is my way of helping out."
When asked how much he has given over the years, he grew mum. "I really don't want to put that in there. I don't even want to guess. It's a collection of over 12 to 15 years. I just try to make a little bit of difference. It's a great resource that's going to be here for years," he said.
But Karen Spa, the library's director, was far from quiet when singing Paulson's praises.
"Bob's an unusual donor. He's a young man who seemed to adopt the library. Many of our donors are older and more established," she said. "The kinds of things he brings are so popular that he just stands out. In just the last couple of weeks, he brought in the new Scooby-Doo video, 'Ice Age,' 'Lilo and Stitch' and 'Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.' Those are the videos that kids are going to love."
She numbered his video donation at 52, which didn't include copies he replaced when they wore out. "He's responsible for thousands of circulations. He wants the kids to have things they'll enjoy," Mrs. Spak said. "His reward is knowing that he's made kids happy."
The library director also called Paulson a "treasure, because we've been struggling to maintain our book-buying ability for years," she said. "We rely on our donors to build our resource collection and he's a great resource. I've worked in a lot of libraries and I've never met anyone like him. He's special."