By David Laprad
Lee Hope was so busy making sure everything went smoothly during a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Chattanooga Public Library that she barely noticed when library director Will O’Hearn began speaking.
The occasion was the opening of a new, fully accessible playground outside the downtown library, and Hope had been given an important assignment: Make sure the children holding the ribbon were in position and ready for Mayor Tim Kelly to cut it.
Then, somewhere amid the preparations, she heard O’Hearn mention 37 years of service to children and youth.
He was talking about her.
Hope had been so focused on the children that she never suspected she was about to be honored for 37 years of service to them.
An unexpected career
Hope was studying marketing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga when she found herself in need of a job.
A member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, she needed money to pay her dues. One day, while browsing job postings on a corkboard at UTC, she spotted an opening for a book shelver at the Eastgate Branch Library.
She applied and spent most of her college years shelving books.
At the time, Hope says she had no intention of making a career of library work. She was interested in advertising and eventually left Eastgate to work for a specialty advertising company, where she became an office manager.
After graduating, however, she was moved into sales, a role that didn’t suit her.
“I’m not someone who says, ‘Give me your money and I’ll give you something in return,’” she says. “I’m someone who asks, ‘What can I do for you?’”
Hope had also once considered becoming a social worker, but her older brother discouraged her from pursuing a profession he believed offered little financial reward.
She laughs at the irony of what happened instead.
“And so I became a librarian, which doesn’t pay much either, but still allows me to do social work.”
When an opening became available at Eastgate, Hope returned to the library, this time working in circulation.
She might have remained there indefinitely had it not been for an unusual skill she’d taught herself: making balloon animals.
One day, the library needed someone to help with a children’s program, and Hope was recruited because of her talent with balloons.
During the program, she helped the children make blue night owls. Watching their delight as they learned something new and admired their creations stirred something in her.
“That was the moment the light bulb went on,” she recalls. “I knew this was what I was supposed to be doing.”
In addition to the satisfaction of teaching children a new skill, Hope found herself captivated by their enthusiasm, curiosity and ability to find wonder in ordinary things.
“Children see the world with a sense of wonder,” she says. “Everything new is magical to them.”
What began as a way to pay her sorority dues had become something she never expected: a life’s work.
Growing up with Ms. Lee
Hope eventually transferred to the Northgate Branch Library, where she began leading programs for toddlers. She later moved to the Ooltewah-Collegedale branch, expanding her work to include preschool story times, after-school activities and summer reading programs.
In 2000, she became head of children’s services at the downtown library. Around the same time, she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, earning a master’s degree in library and information science while continuing to work full time.
Hope later became children’s coordinator, overseeing programs designed to introduce young people to books and encourage a lifelong love of reading.
Over the years, she’s watched countless children grow from toddlers into teenagers and adults. Some have returned to the library with children of their own.
Along the way, they’ve given her a lifetime of memories.
One of her favorites involves a little boy attending a toddler program with his mother. The children and their caregivers sat on carpet squares, which Hope had obtained through a donation from a local carpet business.
As she prepared for the program one day, she heard a familiar voice calling her name.
“Ms. Lee.”
She turned to find the boy lying on his carpet square with the material tucked around him.
“Look at me. I’m a hot dog.”
Hope still laughs at the memory. Years later, the boy’s mother returned to the library and told her that her son had gone on to attend a prestigious college.
Not every memory is so lighthearted, however, and some have stayed with Hope because of the profound ways children can change over time.
She remembers a boy named Carlos who frequently visited the library and had a habit of getting into trouble.
Sometimes she reprimanded him. Other times, when his behavior became too disruptive, she told him he needed to leave for the day but could return the next.
When Carlos was 16, he got into a fistfight with another teenager at the library. The incident resulted in his being barred from the building for a year. Hope says she worried about what would become of him.
“I cried over that,” she recalls.
For years, she didn’t know what had happened to Carlos. Then, when he was 26, he returned to the library looking for her.
He wanted her to know that the experience had helped turn his life around.
He had graduated from school and was working at a movie theater. He told Hope he had a good job.
For someone who’d spent years wondering what had become of him, the visit meant a great deal.
“It makes me feel like I’ve made a difference,” she says. “And I’m not alone. There are a lot of good people here doing the same thing.”
Hope also remembers a mother who returned to the library after her kindergarten-aged son attended a program with his school. Until then, the boy had shown little interest in books.
But the program changed his attitude toward reading, and his mother wanted to thank Hope and a colleague for making that possible.
More than books
For Hope, the library’s responsibility to children extends well beyond teaching them to read.
She believes one of its most important functions is providing a welcoming environment where young people can explore, learn and simply spend time.
“We call the library a third space,” she says. “Kids have home and school, but where else can they go that doesn’t cost anything?”
The library also plays an important role in helping parents and caregivers understand the value of introducing children to books early.
Today, the Chattanooga Public Library offers programs for children from infancy through age 18, including Baby Bounce for children up to 18 months old.
Hope encourages families to begin reading to their children as early as possible, long before they enter school.
The goal, she explains, is to help children associate books with pleasure and discovery rather than assignments and obligations.
“Kids should be able to see themselves in books, but they should also be able to see the world beyond their own experiences,” Hope says. “Stories can take them places they might never otherwise get to go.”
Coming full circle
Hope’s responsibilities have grown considerably since the days when she shelved books at Eastgate.
She now serves as the Chattanooga Public Library’s assistant director of youth services and community engagement, a position created during a recent restructuring.
In addition to overseeing youth services throughout the library system, she supervises its outreach department and a newly established social work position.
For someone who once considered social work as a career, the development represents an unexpected convergence of her youthful ambitions and the profession she ultimately chose.
“We’ve been doing social work for years,” Hope says. “We just haven’t had the training to do it.”
Still young at heart
Away from the library, Hope remains firmly rooted in the community where she grew up.
A lifelong Chattanoogan, Hope grew up in East Brainerd and still lives there. Although she enjoys traveling, she’s never found another place she’d rather call home.
She loves Tennessee football and Broadway musicals, sometimes meeting her best friend in New York City to attend several shows.
And, perhaps unsurprisingly, she remains an avid reader.
After years of reading children’s and young adult books to stay current with the latest titles, she’s finally making time for adult fiction, particularly mystery thrillers.
Despite having accumulated enough years of service to qualify for retirement, Hope has no immediate plans to leave the library.
“I love what I’m doing,” she says.
Perhaps that’s because the children she’s worked with for nearly four decades have given her something in return: a lasting appreciation for the wonder and possibility they find in the world around them.
Hope has watched generations of Chattanooga children grow up, some returning years later to share stories of the lives they’ve built.
But as for growing up herself, she’s in no particular hurry.
“Maybe I’ll grow up someday,” she says. “But I’m not there yet.”