Listen to the interview here!
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Rebecca Laincz.
Rebecca Laincz: How are you, Toni?
Toni: Rebecca, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Rebecca: I am the co-owner of Firefly Bookstore in Kutztown. We’re a new and used bookstore. We also carry quite a number of other things – calendars, games. We also host events occasionally with authors, game nights and children’s events.
Toni: It sounds like you guys are pretty busy. Let’s go into the first part of the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Rebecca: I thought a bit about this, and what comes to me is making creative connections. When you see different portions, different pieces, different parts of anything and it comes to you how they can make a whole that’s a much greater whole, that generates a lot more possibilities, and just following that line.
Toni: Do you see a piece of the puzzle, or do you usually end up seeing the whole process and then you start to put that together?
Rebecca: I’m someone where I’ll see all the parts and then they just tend to fall together all at once. For me, I’m someone where sometimes it gets a little frustrating because I feel like I’m getting piece after piece after piece and I’m waiting for it to fall together, but when it does, it’s really, really rewarding.
Toni: Can you usually see the pieces in other projects that other people are working on as well?
Rebecca: Sometimes. If it’s a subject that I’m comfortable with and I’ve seen in my own store or my background, things like that. Yes, I often see connections between different things. I can translate.
Toni: Oh, okay. When you become inspired, that’s when you can translate.
Rebecca: Sure, yes.
Toni: Can you give us an example of how you put that into practice here in Berks County?
Rebecca: Just here in the store. What’s most important is connecting people with books. We love talking to people. We love talking to our customers and colleagues, friends and neighbors, and connecting them to information. That’s really what being a bookstore is all about is finding resources for people.
Sometimes it’s not even just books. Sometimes it’s connecting people with people. That was a huge goal for our store was to be a place where people could gather and meet each other, meet like-minded people. It’s really great to see that happening in the community.
Toni: So the creative process that inspires you when you see those jigsaw puzzle pieces coming together – can you walk us through an example of how that might have happened that you got to witness within the bookstore?
Rebecca: Sure. We see it pretty regularly, especially with kids who come in and finding that book that will get a kid to become a reader. Sometimes people have a bit of a narrow view of what reading a book means. Sometimes they think it has to be something classic or something difficult. No. Sometimes it can just be whatever sparks interest. Again, what inspires. It can be anything from even just a newspaper, a book of facts, even a very simple adventure. Anything that grabs.
One really great example that we share with lots of other bookstores is what’s called “World Book Night.” It happens in April. The idea was to give out free books to people who don’t really read or are nonreaders. Publishers, authors, all kinds of people in the book industry come together. They put together these special copies just to hand out, and we’ve watched it work.
One of our customers was a giver so he took a bunch of books and he handed them out at work. One man said he hadn’t read a book in 30 years, and now he’s a regular. Now we’re making suggestions to him every other month. He rediscovered this great world.
Toni: What a great example you’ve just given. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Rebecca: For us, every day it’s the kids. It’s the students from Kutztown University. It’s the grade school kids. It’s amazing. People talk about, “Reading is dying. This isn’t working.” There’s a lot of negativity out there, but so many of these kids are enthusiastic. They’re involved. They’re open.
An amazing little group is the poetry club at the high school. They’re on it. They do regular poetry readings. They’re all writing. They’re all involved. They’re all supporting each other. It’s amazing.
Toni: So you really get to see that in action and again, that’s what inspires you. You can hear that in your voice. Rebecca, what would you like to your legacy to be?
Rebecca: For us, we planned. This is important to us as far as our business model. It needed to be something more than just a store. We want it to be a positive influence in the community, a place that again pays the inspiration forward, gets people to connect, be involved, and see firsthand where that supports not only themselves but their neighbors and their community.
Toni: Rebecca, do you see that happening?
Rebecca: I do. We have been very happy with how this has all come together. We’re regularly energized by other people coming in and saying, “We’re so glad you’re here. We’re glad you’re doing this. We’re happy to see it.” Giving another resource and giving back to the community.
Toni: Congratulations to you for living your legacy, and thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Rebecca: Thank you, Toni.
