Our friend Stacey: Mom, Doctor, Reader

Stacey Schwartz was a Halifax pediatrician and married mother of two who loved hiking, canoeing, singing – and reading. She was our friend and a founding member of our book club in 1995.

A voracious reader who often had two or three books on the go at once – and always more waiting on her bedside table – Stacey brought her trademark wit and wisdom to our monthly meetings, always challenging and engaging us in her inimitable fashion.

Stacey died on Sept. 13, 2013 just two weeks before her 50^th birthday, after a short but intense battle with cancer. We miss her greatly, and this community – including her family and friends, her neighbours, her fellow medical practitioners – keenly feels her loss.

Our Halifax book club launches Stacey’s Stories at Woozles book store with a stack of our favourite kids’ reads, all destined for the IWK Health Centre where Stacey was a pediatrician and emergency room physician.

In her memory, our book club began a venture we call Stacey’s Stories, which sees our members – and others – collecting new books to donate to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia where Stacey was a well-known and respected presence in the emergency room.

We work in partnership with the IWK Health Centre’s Child Life department, which helps children who are long-term patients , and also with the very supportive Woozles Children’s Bookstore, where Stacey was a frequent customer.

Each donated book contains a Stacey’s Stories decal, and is presented in her memory, with much love. You can learn more about Stacey in the Globe and Mail Lives Lived column written by her parents Irwin and Myrna Schwartz.

More than 200 books have been purchased so far by Stacey’s friends, family, patients and their families. These were among the first, purchased by Stacey’s book club, a little something for readers of all kinds.

A few good reads

If anyone is feeling charitable with the holiday season approaching, the IWK would be most grateful for these Stacey’s Stories from Woozles.

Series, etc:
“I Spy” books
French board Books…
Early reading chapter books
“I Can Read” series books
Lego City
“Magic Treehouse” books
“Pete the Cat” books
“If you give a…. ” collection eg. (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie)
“Faces” board books for babies

Popular authors among young booklovers:
Sandra Boynton
Julia Donaldson
Barbara Park
Mo Williams
Bill Martin
Bernadette Rossetti-Shust
Eric Carle
Todd Parr
Robert Munsch
Laura Numeroff

And, we have a fun new sticker available so you can add your name to your donated book.

How you can participate

A lover of books since childhood, Stacey was happy to share great reads with the book club she helped found in 1995 when her own children, Jonah and Leah were still small. Her favourite picture book was Miss Twiggley’s Tree, which she and her husband Sandy wore out reading to their kids.

As a pediatrician, Dr. Stacey helped innumerable children and families through her private practice and her work with the IWK Heath Centre in Halifax where she often spent nights in the emergency room

For those of you who don’t live in Halifax, Woozles can be found online at www.woozles.com. If you would like to purchase from outside Halifax, you can do that at frontdesk@woozles.com  Or call toll free 1-800-966-0537.

The wonderful Woozles store can be found at 1533 Birmingham, Halifax, NS B3J 2J6, phone is 902 423-7626.

The books will find a home at the IWK Child Life program where they will help make a hospital stay a little easier for children of all ages.

If you can’t decide what to purchase, simply ask the staff at Woozles to select something off the list supplied by the IWK. Then ask them to place a Stacey’s Stories decal on the inside and Stacey’s book club will get it to the hospital for you.

Stacey (far left) with her book club.