CHESHIRE, Conn. — Yes, they sell books.
All of them are used.
But the people selling them are getting a new lease on life.
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ReRead Books & More at 106 Elm St. has all the appearances of a well-appointed, richly stocked purveyor of gently used books. But for Hope Reinhard, who spearheaded the nonprofit’s creation in 2020, it is a training ground for young people with disabilities, including those with intellectual disability or who are neurodivergent, who need a little more instruction than an employee manual and video can provide.
“Cheshire doesn’t have a bookstore,” said Reinhard, a town native. “I love books. I love kids and I love to decorate. This is a great place to learn customer service, to learn how to make change, to learn organizing, categorizing and also cleaning all of the books with a dust cloth, which we do.”
All of those skills do not come naturally or easily to all people. This year, 18% of state school students were classified as having a disability. For years, Reinhard worked as a transition coordinator at Cheshire High School to help such students find jobs in the community for which they had the necessary aptitude. The pickings, she said, were slim. Many students with disabilities continue to receive secondary transition services until the end of the school year during which they turn 22, according to the state Department of Education, but after that, it can be like falling off a cliff, Reinhard said.
“You’re cut off from everything at that point,” she said. “You can’t play on the Cheshire Challengers, you can’t do adaptive sports. It’s a very difficult transition to make. You go from having all these supportive services to where it’s ripped out from under you. One of our associates was almost depressed. Everything he loved and did as a kid was stopped.”
Kimberly Gentile, a ReRead Books board of directors member who has an adult son with a disability, said the transition can be challenging. As a school student, her son, who has the rare genetic disorder Hunter syndrome, “could do a lot of the same things as a typical kid, but it just may look a little different,” she said.
Gentile involved her son in adaptive taekwondo, volleyball, skiing, swimming, basketball, soccer and even theater, but finding employment as a young adult proved daunting.
“It’s difficult to translate his special interests into a job,” she said. “But he likes to keep moving. He told me he’ll be happy in a role where he’s moving throughout the day.”
Of late, he has been volunteering with Meals on Wheels.
In Connecticut, after special education students with an individualized education program graduate from the public school system, their rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act end, said Matthew Cerrone of the state education department. Some students may require secondary transition-only services. Some students may qualify for adult supports and services through a number of state agencies, including the Department of Developmental Services, Bureau of Rehabilitation Services or Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Cerrone said a little more than 2,000 students are in this situation at age 18; about 900 at 19; about 700 at 20; about 600 have IEPs at 21 and about 150 at 22.
“I’ve had trouble with jobs in the past,” said Noelle Fusco, who is one of ReRead’s eight associates. “I couldn’t keep a consistent job because of the demandingness (sic). (Employers) don’t care to explain the tasks in the way I need. In my other jobs, I would sit and doodle because I would want clearer directions.”
Fusco, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at age 20 after she moved from upstate New York to Cheshire, said she was frustrated with past jobs that left her bored, confused, frustrated or unfocused.
In the several months she’s been working at the bookstore, she said she has found a new community and sense of initiative.
“Here I feel I should help, so it just comes to me,” Fusco said. “That (book) should go here. That should go there. I struggle with conversing, but ever since I’ve been working here, it’s gotten easier because I’ve been experimenting as much as I can. It’s so much fun. I’m getting work done and I’m helping out.”
Nestled in the ground floor of Cheshire’s Watch Factory Shops, ReRead Books has the look and vibe of a comfortable “third space” hangout for the literati. A dark wood mahogany bar wraps around the cash register. Tall bar stools sit under a constellation of track lighting. Neatly spaced bookshelves knit together alphabetically and by category — fiction, biography, children’s books, classics, poetry, philosophy — wrapping into individualized warrens of specialty genres. Several plush armchairs and small dining sets inveigle with table lamps, colorful pillows and a small, wood child-size desk and chair. All of the books, furniture and appurtenances — framed posters and prints — have been donated.
“We’re all about sustainability,” Reinhard said.
When the idea first came to her five years ago, she began soliciting donations on social media. Before long, the garage in which Reinhard and other board members figured they would store the books was stuffed with them.
“People don’t want to throw out books,” said Reinhard, who said the organization received “thousands” of books. “People liked the mission. It was helping other people and that (special needs) population. I think kids today are also more understanding than we were.”
Gentile said, “The concept is bringing people to this space, but for different reasons, and then introducing them to our mission, which is promoting and accepting an integrated workforce.”
All of Reinhard’s staffers work part-time for minimum wage. The store stays afloat financially through a mixture of public and private grants. The bookstore itself “breaks even,” Reinhard said, but lately much of ReRead Books’ income has been generated by an upstairs event space that Reinhard rents out for celebratory gatherings, exercise classes and community events. The nonprofit also offsets its rent by subleasing to New England Coffee, which provides coffee and pastry inside the store.
On Sundays and Mondays, cars weighed down with trunks full of books arrive to donate them to ReRead. Staff members cart the books into the docking area and workers begin the process of identifying, classifying and stacking the books on the appropriate shelves.
“It’s just boxes and boxes of books,” as well as curio cabinets, tables, bookshelves and other knick-knacks, Reinhard said. “People come from all over — Springfield (Mass.), New York. There is a group of people who do a whole New England used book tour.”
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