Book Carrier an Unsung Hero

Barbara Dwyer, a one-woman book-delivery service for elderly San Anselmo shut-ins, has been named a Silver Award winner.

The Quality of Life Commission unanimously voted at a recent meeting to give her the award, aimed at “unsung heroes” who have benefited the town without seeking recognition.

It will be presented at the 7 p.m. Town Council meeting Tuesday, June 14.

Dwyer for several years has hand-delivered books requested by residents unable to get to the , readers who, she says, “have been absolutely charming and delightful, examples of how to grow old gracefully even though they can’t get around the way they used to.”

Interestingly, all the recipients so far have been female, she notes.

Readers’ friends on occasion will return the books. But Dwyer sometimes needs to pick them up — often finding herself, once again, immersed in “friendly chats about their lives and histories.”

Many of the books she delivers involve light reading — a lot of fiction, especially mysteries.

Dwyer, a 67-year-old who’s lived in San Anselmo since 1972, also has worked tirelessly with the Friends of the Library for about four years, sorting books on a weekly basis and helping with its every-other-month book sales.

She’s glad to help out almost any way she can, she says with a chuckle, “but I don’t do meetings.”

She doesn’t hesitate to plug the next book sale, however: “It will be at Town Hall on June 4, the first Saturday of the month.”

The book world is hardly Dwyer’s only volunteer interest. She’s also helped with , and has been a long-time member of the town’s Open Space Committee.

That, she says, is an outgrowth of her childhood in Connecticut.

“I come from a town where there’s no concept of open space, where every parcel is thought of as potential tax revenue. San Anselmo is a very special, precious place in contrast — you may not realize it unless you came from some place that isn’t as blessed.”

As for her volunteerism, she sees herself “as a person in the background, the worker-bee type, doing something in the kitchen or pulling Scotch broom here and there.”

Others, she insists with true humility, are more deserving. “All the library ladies are great. We work hand–in-hand deciding what books to keep and what not to. And all the open space people are wonderful, too.”

Dwyer also is an avid photographer, a hobbyist whose interest stems in part from her having been a color printer in a darkroom lab for 16 years prior to her retirement not long ago.

She particularly likes “just going somewhere and exploring with my camera.”

A Peace Corp veteran (she was in Nigeria in 1965-67), she revels in traveling — and, in fact, is planning a trip with her sister to Ireland in July.

“I also do a lot a tai chi,” she says. “I’m in a bike-riding group, and another for hikers. I guess I’m just a groupie with a wonderful life. I feel so lucky.”

Dwyer will become the 18th winner of the Silver Award.

Previous recipients include Peter Penhallow, the husband-and-wife team of Teri and Alex Rockas, Eli Welber and Steve Lee, Grace Komo, Ben Burtt, Royce Truex and Jo Gross, Michael Schwab, Deborah Cichocki, Kay Peacock, Frank Ortiz, Tom Boss, the husband-wife team of Patricia and Chuck Swensen, Bill Abright, Cynnie Barrows, Marilyn Girodo, Sophia Spencer and Dollie Frauens.

Silver and the more environmentally oriented Green Awards are handed out in alternate months. Nominations for either can be e-mailed to voodee@sbcglobal.net or townclerk@ci.san-anselmo.ca.us or mailed or hand-delivered to the Quality of Life Commission c/o the Town of San Anselmo, 525 San Anselmo Ave.