Roman Feeser, Director of Corporate Productions, shares what he’s learned from the students, teachers, and authors who have visited Scholastic.

Today marks my ninth month as the Director of Corporate Productions here at Scholastic. Before receiving this position I was writing and producing for comedy, so when I accepted the position as a writer and producer for “the largest publisher and distributor of children’s books in the world” I figured I would be working in the same type of environment, developing productions for eager minds, hungry for entertainment. I was excited to start here because I knew I would be working with some of the most talented and creative people in the industry. What I didn’t foresee was the value of what I would be doing. I couldn’t predict how important impacting so many young lives would feel.  This job has become a life lesson.

Our recent live webcast, Series Favorites: Heroes Scamps & Sidekicks had all the makings for an amazing event. We had Henry Winkler & Lin Oliver hosting. Our guest authors were a publishing dream line up – R.L. Stine, Kathryn Lasky, Jim Benton and Dav Pilkey. Everything was falling into place. And then things started to (slightly) fall apart. Classrooms across the country began prepping for testing the same week and some of our live video question classes were dropping out of the webcast. I began to sweat as we had less than a week and few available classes to participate. So I did what any person in crisis, desperate for resolution does, I turned to Facebook.

As luck would have it, Jenn Knippenberg, a dear friend from high school and a third grade teacher at Pinar Elementary School in Orlando, Florida stepped up to the plate and squeezed the webcast into her busy schedule. Her class came to my rescue. I will admit at the time, I really hadn’t thought about what it would mean for her class to participate. I was simply concerned with meeting my deadline and having coverage.

The webcast went off without a hitch. It was as close to perfection as anyone could have asked for. The lights came down, books went out to classrooms as a thank you and authors continued onto their busy lives. I moved on to concentrate on our next webcast, The Third Annual WordGirl Definition Competition which was taking place in two weeks.

My hectic schedule at Scholastic resumed and I never gave the Series webcast a second thought, until today. In my Inbox was an email from Jenn. It read like this:

Thanks for the books! It was like Christmas in here! I teach in a poverty stricken area, so a free book that they get to keep was such a blessing! Thank you!

 Attached was this video:

So what I’ve learned. I’ve learned that all of our jobs here, from editor on the eighth floor to cashier at the Red Bar Café, matter. I’ve learned and now genuinely understand what we mean when we say that it is every child’s right to read. I’ve learned how important a book is to a child that has nothing. With it, they can go to some other place, a place where they don’t have to worry about having nothing.  And finally, last but not least, a valuable purpose for Facebook in my life.