Jersey City is such a fascinating place. Having grown up and lived my entire life here, I have to admit that Jersey City is now at its best. I don’t think I could picture myself having a suburban lifestyle as a kid because it was so vibrant in our society. Even today, you meet people from different walks of life and you can often make a lifelong connection. Last night, I attended the JC Reads fundraiser in the Charles & Co. building Downtown to gather in a beautiful space with just that, people from all over Jersey City.

I met with Ellen Simon, a mother and the forefront runner of the JC Reads fundraiser and Jersey City Superintendent Marcia Lyles. Simon insisted that manager of leasing and public relations at SILVERMAN, Brittani Bunney was the one to thank.

So what is JC Reads? JC Reads is the initiative “to get as many Jersey City residents to read the same book at the same time and to promote community and conversation while simultaneously promoting literacy. The book that has been chosen is The Pact.”

The Pact tells the story of three young men, Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, and George Jenkins. They are from Newark, New Jersey and they made a promise to help each other through college. The book had such a large impact on Stein that she wanted to truly enforce the idea of a citywide read.

“This is all thanks to Brittani and The Pact is a compelling story that resonates with Jersey City. From the story, two of the three young men are now doctors and the third is a dentist and we are looking to bring them to Jersey City on April 26th for a forum,” Simon explained. “The decisions we make around children can make lifelong consequences both good or ill. You don’t have to be a parent or an educator to impact a child’s life. Someone really ordinary can put you on the right path.”

Dr. Lyles expanded on the idea of a citywide read and how it could impact the community as a whole. “Getting the whole community to read a compelling story is something to unify us. Who would disagree with young people taking power? You can’t read the story without putting yourself in their shoes as the parent, the student, or the educator. Ordinary people do some extraordinary things,” she said.

I spoke to Paul Silverman who hosted the JC Reads Fundraiser and having read The Pact, he too is pushing for a citywide read. “To have everyone read a story like this is so unifying and inspiring. I grew up in New Jersey and things were different for me, my parents went to college, I went to college, and my kids went to college. These men did not have that and it hits close to home and it’d be a shame not to read it. I feel like this is a way to unify people from all walks of life,” Silverman said.

As a lifelong resident in Jersey City, never has the community felt this much like a community. As I spoke to Bunney, she explained that she wanted to get the community involved because of how important literacy is.

“We are looking to make the JC Reads an annual project where the authors come out to speak to the students. This is a community driven initiative backed by Hudson Community College, NJCU, Saint Peter’s University, and Silverman,” Bunney concluded.

And literacy is one of our most valued skills, I spoke with Kristen Hart of the Renaissance Institute in Jersey City. She explained that The Pact was on the summer reading list for incoming freshmen last year so many students already have exposure to it.

“It’s a relatable book. Students from a big city may pull away from school or the right path and this book is a good example of tangible people. Who doesn’t like a success story? And it has a fairytale ending,” Hart added.

While the woman of the hour, Bunney, was running around greeting each and every guest there was one thing I noticed, the lucidity of it all. Yes, this was a fundraiser to try and get the entire city to read a single book. Yes, there were many recognizable people, but there were also people who weren’t. To me, what made this night successful was  that there were students, residents, council members, business owners, and more interconnected in a single room. Many chatted over wine and appetizers but the book vibrated through conversations. There were plenty who had never read the book but seemed even more influenced to read it towards the end of the night. So what impact could this make on a community? JC Reads intends to turn the community read into an annual initiative to create a mind meld over a single book. So where do you come in and how can you get involved?

You can contact Bunney at (201) 238-0068 or brittani@silvermanbuilding.com

For educators, parents, and students, the plan is to have the doctors attend a forum on April 26th (more information soon). Dr. Lyles plans to pick twenty-five students from each high school in Jersey City and send them to the forum and encourage them to make pacts with each other. WORD Books will also have copies of The Pact for sale, so don’t forget to read and shop local!