Eva Hilborn is 99 years old, and she is not done.
Eva Hilborn explained, with complete matter-of-factness, that she’d survived COVID-19 and a heat wave, felt she needed an activity, and decided to start a literacy charity. At 95.
The Wonderful World of Books was inspired by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library – a program that mails free books to young children. Eva looked at what was happening in her community in Bowser on Vancouver Island and thought: I can do that. She started with 25 children. Her neighbours helped her make deliveries. One of those neighbours happened to know a journalist at CHEK TV, and after a brief clip aired, CTV picked it up as a feel-good closer. Suddenly Eva had a hundred children on her list and needed to hand it over to someone else. She recruited Kathy Van Herwaarden as vice president, pulled together eight women to form a board, and the organization took off.
Today the Wonderful World of Books delivers free, personalized books – each one with the child’s name printed inside – to 500 children across School District 69, from birth to age four. Between 50 and 70 volunteers make house deliveries every month. There are sponsors from across Canada, grant partnerships with the Qualicum Beach Community Foundation, and a waiting list that includes babies not yet born. One family registered their child three months before the due date.
There’s a photograph Eva mentioned – a parent sent it in, of an older brother who’d received Brown Bear, Brown Bear book when he was small, sitting beside his little brother who had just received the same book, turning the pages together. That image, more than any statistic, tells you what this program actually is.
Dave asked Eva how she’d achieved such a long and active life. Keep busy, she said. Keep a job. Do something positive.
At 99, Eva Hilborn is still busy with a Wonderful World of Books.
She will celebrate her one hundredth birthday this summer.
Hear the full conversation with Eva Hilborn and Kathy Van Herwaarden with Dave Graham on The PULSE Community Podcast at: https://bit.ly/S2EP36PulsePodcast
Peter McCully is a multimedia creator and podcast host based in Parksville, BC. https://mccullymedia.ca/category/blog/