COMMUNITY PROFILES A Goode fit
DOWNTOWN On a cool and sunny Tuesday afternoon, Martha Goode chats excitedly about her upcoming trip to Massachusetts, a place where the weather is most likely considerably warmer and humid.
First stop is Boston, Goode explains, taking a bite into her burger at the Broadway Deli. Perhaps a visit to the famous North End district for some authentic Italian food before making her way to Nantucket for a reunion with friends.
Goode shrugs and says that she’ll go wherever her friends will take her.
New England, a region of which Goode speaks fondly, a place she grew up, attended college and cultivated a love for libraries.
It’s a long way from home for Goode, the co-chair of the Friends of the Santa Monica Library Used Bookstore. Raised in New Canaan, Conn., a town located about 70 miles east of Hartford, Goode graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont before making her way to San Francisco. She has called Santa Monica home for the past 11 years.
Goode seems content on staying in Santa Monica, a city that seemingly has everything to offer her, with the Santa Monica Mountains and the beach located nearby. The only other place she would consider moving is New York City, but deems the Big Apple as cost prohibitive.
“There’s a lot to like about living here,” Goode said of Santa Monica. “Everyone wants to live in Santa Monica.”
In the more than 10 years that Goode has lived in the city by the bay, she has found herself completely invested in the community, volunteering for the Santa Monica Conservancy, fundraising for local radio station KCRW as well as Saint Augustine by the Sea, her Episcopalian church.
But she is perhaps best known for her presence at the Santa Monica Public Library.
It was eight years ago on a Monday morning when a friend brought Goode to sort used books in the bomb shelter of the old Santa Monica Public Library. A small group of volunteers met every Monday to sort the donated used books that were later sold at a biannual book sale, which is a fundraising initiative by the Friends of the Santa Monica Public Library.
Goode was hooked. A supporter of public libraries her entire life, she began appearing every Monday to help sort books, eventually volunteering for the book sales, which raises money for the Santa Monica Public Library.
“They make reading accessible to everyone and in a city where it’s hard to find a hub and community, the library was sort of one hub of community in Santa Monica,” Goode said. “I think libraries sort of reflect the health of the community.”
Through the Monday morning sessions at the bomb shelter of the old facility,Goode met fellow volunteer Kent Lewis and learned of an effort to open a used bookstore in the new main library, which opened in January 2006.
The pair worked together for months prior to the opening of the new library, strategizing ways to staff the new bookstore, to configure the layout, and research how other local library bookstores operated.
“She was very thorough, pretty decisive about things,” Lewis said. “It’s easy to work with her, I know where she stands.”
Today, Lewis and Goode are co-chairs of the Friends of the Santa Monica Library Used Bookstore, the former also a member of the Friends of the Santa Monica Library committee.
They tag team in helping to run the store, popping in at least once a week, cleaning, overseeing the crew, and filling in any holes. They train the new volunteers, and attend the Friends of the Santa Monica Public Library committee meetings, providing updates on the activities of the used bookstore.
“I do anything I can to assist them in keeping the bookstore running as efficiently as possible,” Goode said.
Goode estimates that she spends about eight hours a week in the public libraries, including volunteering at the bookstore and visits to her local branch on Montana Avenue.
Being new to the area when she first moved to Santa Monica, Goode found it hard to find a sense of community. Coming from a small town in Connecticut, it was an odd feeling to walk around the streets and not recognize a single face.
Many people find a community in their children’s school or their church, said Goode, who doesn’t have children and originally attended a church in Beverly Hills even though she was living in Santa Monica.
It was one of the reasons why she was drawn to a life of volunteering.
“Working for the community creates a sense of community,” Goode said.
Today, Goode has her community. “I made a lot of nice friends,” she said. “When I walk around, I see people I know constantly.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 18, 2007. Read the original PDF.