Extraordinary Volunteer ‘Doing Her Part’

Originally published March 14, 2008.

Stephanie Moody has set a pace in community involvement that few could follow. The vivacious volunteer is president of the County Club of the South Home Owners Association, Vice Chair of the Johns Creek Community Association, and a member of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Board of Trustees. She is also, a wife, mother, author, and dog trainer. "

I do stay busy, but that is the way I prefer things," said Moody of her demanding volunteer schedule.

Moody and her husband Sen. Dan Moody, along with their three children, moved to Country Club of the South in the summer of 1990. When her son was in high school Moody became involved in her son's school PTSA. After several years of involvement she became PTSA president.

"I was interested in the school and how parents interacted with the school," she said.

During her PTSA tenure Moody caught the attention of the late Fulton County Commissioner Bob Fulton. Fulton recruited her to be a part of his Strategic Planning and Review Committee or SPARC. SPARC was a committee comprised of 30 neighborhood and government officials from North Fulton.

"The Fulton County Commissioners were not sending money north," said Moody.

She was given the opportunity to speak to the commissioners, as well as local residents about her real passion – libraries.

Moody had become discouraged by the disproportion of libraries throughout Fulton County, out of 31 total libraries only five were located in North Fulton. Moody explains that years ago when libraries were first being built in Fulton County they were city, or neighborhood libraries that were smaller.

"People walked to the library, and at the time that made perfect sense, but now we have become more mobile, and larger libraries that serve a larger radius have become necessary," she said.

The need for larger libraries that would be peppered throughout all of Fulton County became the driving force behind the recent Facility Master Plan, a plan devised to create a better system that will provide library services to the entire county.

"More and more I realized how under-served North Fulton was," she said. "I began hoping for change." Moody became Vice Chair of the Atlanta-Fulton Library Foundation, championing the cause for longer library hours and better library facility availability.

"My passion was, and is, books. I wanted libraries to stay open longer hours," she said.

Moody fought for the establishment of both the Northeast/Spruill Oaks Regional Library, located on Spruill Road and the Dr. Robert E. Fulton Regional Library at Ocee on Abbotts Bridge Road.

"It took a couple of years for Oaks, and then we didn't get Ocee until a new library was built in Atlanta," she said.

While Moody views libraries as a necessity, she understands that building and maintaining libraries is expensive, and smaller libraries in communities without an economy of scale is costing taxpayers thousands and eating away at library budgets.

According to the Sizemore Group, a Strategic Planning firm that assisted the Library System with the Facility Master Plan, a 25,000 square foot library is estimated to cost $1.4 million to operate for one year, while a 5,000 square foot library costs almost $400,000 to operate.

Moody believes it is more cost effective to build regional libraries rather than smaller neighborhood libraries.

"Not only are the services more in keeping with what area residents say they want in their library – including more computer space, enlarged children’s areas and community rooms -- but larger libraries also serve a five mile radius rather than a two mile radius, and benefit from economies of scale. In the big picture that means projected savings in both personnel and maintenance costs, especially since personnel costs for the entire system account for over 75 percent of the annual library budget," said Moody.

The Fulton County Board of Commissioners will soon vote whether or not to put a $35 million bond issue on the November ballot. The funds from the bond will be used to build new libraries, or renovate old ones.

"Each library in the system is scheduled to be renovated or consolidated," Moody said.

If the bond makes it to the ballot Moody hopes that people understand that library funding is an on-going process.

"I want to advocate for better government services, I want better, more transparent government," said Moody. "If people vote ‘yes’ for better services they have to pay for them."

Moody's passion for libraries and providing books to everyone stems from her career as a freelance writer and author.

Moody holds a degree in Journalism, and has written several short stories Highlights for Children, Chickadee and Jack & Jill. Her first children's book, The Tornado, was published by HarperCollins.

She is currently working on a second children's book, which she will submit for publication in October.

Moody is also working with the Newtown Park Foundation, raising funds to restore the park.

"It is one of the few parks we have and we need to work to preserve it," she said.

The Newtown Park Foundation is making efforts to raise funds to complete a $5 million project that will rebuild the common house in the park for community use. Foundation money raised will provide a new roof, clean the inside of the building and create a porch. The foundation is also working to restore the schoolhouse, and clean up the pond and add a garden.

"We want this to be a place people can go and play with their kids," she said. "That is what is appeals to me, because this is a park the whole community can benefit from."

The foundation has raised more than $200,000 and has received grant dollars to repair erosion to ball fields.

Extraordinary Volunteer ‘Doing Her Part’: Moody says while sometimes all of her community work can become overwhelming, she sees no end in sight: "We all have to do our part, and this is the role I have chosen."