Springfield City Library books award for hiring people with mental illness

The Springfield City Library hires people from The Lighthouse in Springfield, a recovery center for people with mental illness.

Photo by Darlotte JusticeSen. Gale D. Candaras, left, presents an "employer of the year" award to the Springfield City Library during an event at the Statehouse on Tuesday to recognize organizations that employ people from state-funded recovery centers in the Massachusetts Clubhouse Coalition. To the right are Springfield library worker Rydell Leacock, a member of of the Lighthouse in Springfield, and Patricia D'Amario of Springfield, a manager for the Springfield City Library.

BOSTON – Patricia D'Amario, of Springfield, a manager for the Springfield City Library, says the library benefits from hiring people from a local recovery center for people with mental illness.

During an event at the Statehouse on Tuesday, the library was recognized for employing about 10 people the past five years from the state-funded Lighthouse in Springfield, a recovery center in the Massachusetts Clubhouse Coalition. The coalition presented awards to leaders from around the state for hiring people who use the centers to recover from mental illness. The Lighthouse, which works with about 40 employers in the Springfield area, named the library as its "employer of the year."

The library hires people from The Lighthouse to restock book shelves and do other work in its so-called page program. "If things aren't where they belong, no one can find them," said D'Amario, adding that the library and its branches send and receive hundreds of books and other materials each day.

Sen. Gale D. Candaras, a Wilbraham Democrat, presented the award to The Lighthouse. Candaras, the Senate chairwoman of the Committee on Revenue, said the recovering people who use the clubhouses across the state provided the state $13 million in taxes from their wages.

"On behalf of the Committee on Revenue, thank you very much," Candaras told the crowd at the awards ceremony.

Rydell Leacock, a member of the Lighthouse in Springfield who works as a library page, helped accept the award.