Seeing Ourselves in Stories – Meet Jen Hazzard

Jennifer Hazzard, a BookGive Page Turner and volunteer for the last two and a half years, believes BookGive’s mission promotes a world where ideas and information are shared in hopes of making people feel seen. 

“Books evoke feelings and connect people — and people just want to see themselves in the books they read,” Jen says.

One day, while Jen was immersed in Janet Skeslien Charles’ The Paris Library, she recalls the main character of the historical fiction novel sorting books. 

“I thought what the character was doing was a dream,” she admits. “I immediately googled ‘book volunteering near me’ and I knew I wanted to get involved.”

Jen’s love of books quickly evolved into a deeper understanding of how BookGive serves the broader Denver community. She believes putting her dollars towards an organization like BookGive generates impact others can truly feel and benefit from. 

Through her volunteerism at BookGive’s Service Station, she also gets to witness how her financial contributions are fueling the nonprofit’s daily operations and community partnerships. 

One of those community partners, Dream Books, is helping BookGive with donations that can’t be redistributed with hopes of keeping books out of landfills to either be recycled or placed into the hands of people who can enjoy them. 

“BookGive’s relationship with Dream Books is something more people in our community should know about,” Jen shares. “This partnership is committed to a sustainable approach to book collection and distribution that is better for the environment and better for humanity by placing more books in the hands of people who would want to read them.”

For Jen, books are more than entertainment, they’re reflections of identity, growth, and connection. That belief continues shaping the way she volunteers with BookGive and the stories she finds herself returning to most.

Having been on a bit of a fantasy kick lately, Jen resonates with Tress – the main character of Brandon Sanderson’s, Tress of the Emerald Sea. Tress is forced to leave her simple island life to rescue her friend from a sorceress in a deadly sea of spores, encountering pirates, dragons, and other dangers along the way.

“Tress is super smart and gets to travel a lot,” Jen says with a laugh. “I just think that’s cool.”

Being a civic-minded and goal-oriented member of her community, Jen leaves us with some words of wisdom from one of Sanderson’s other novels, The Way of Kings, that continues to reverberate with her as a valued donor and passionate volunteer. 

“Sanderson is big on the idea of the journey before the destination, and his reminder to enjoy and appreciate every moment of your journey is something that’s stuck with me.”

Meet volunteers and donors like Jen Hazzard by joining the BookGive community.  Volunteer or donate to BookGive, today.