{"id":842,"date":"2020-11-11T16:43:03","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T21:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/?p=842"},"modified":"2020-11-11T16:43:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T21:43:03","slug":"councilmember-will-jawando-storytime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/councilmember-will-jawando-storytime\/","title":{"rendered":"Councilmember Will Jawando Finds Ways To Give Back, No Matter the Medium"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Councilmember
Photo by David Stuck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Growing up in Silver Spring, Will Jawando spent much of his time studying at the Long Branch Library. Now, as a Montgomery County councilmember, he serves as library lead on the Council\u2019s Education and Culture Committee. Jawando was about halfway through a tour of Montgomery County Public Libraries\u2019 21 branches in March when Covid-19 struck.<\/p>\n

After the libraries closed, Jawando began hosting Virtual Storytime on Facebook Live<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>, reading two children\u2019s books every weekday alongside Mr. Mortimer, the stuffed brown monkey perched atop his black leather couch. These online events offered a brief yet vital break for parents adjusting to working at home, he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had thousands of people watching us,\u201d Jawando says. \u201cWe have a lot of regular guests that I know by name, and I try to shout people out and be interactive with it.\u201d The councilmember also welcomes special guests, including actor Cynthia Erivo, Olympic swimmer (and Bethesda native) Katie Ledecky and Rep. Jamie Raskin.<\/p>\n

Jawando, who cut his storytime sessions to twice weekly once contactless pickup at MCPL branches became available in July, reads books on topics ranging from racism and sexual orientation to gender identity and what it means to be an immigrant. He works with MCPL staffers to choose the books; his favorites so far include \u201cAntiracist Baby\u201d by Ibram X. Kendi and \u201cGrace for President\u201d by Kelly DiPucchio.<\/p>\n

Thirty-eight-year-old Jawando was elected and sworn in as the at-large member of Montgomery County Council, meaning he represents the entire county, in December 2018. His first bill\u2014the Law Enforcement Trust and Transparency Act, requiring an independent and transparent investigation of any police officer-involved killing\u2014was signed into law in May 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly wasn\u2019t one of those people [who] as a young kid [said] I\u2019m going to run for office,\u201d he says. At one point, Jawando thought he wanted to go into law enforcement until, after studying the inequities in arrest and incarceration rates at both the local and national levels, he realized \u201cthe laws aren\u2019t always applied fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jawando recalls the systemic inequities he saw as a child in Silver Spring: His mother worked in downtown Silver Spring, but they lived in a run-down apartment in Long Branch that was infested with roaches and rodents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI experienced the great things about Montgomery County but also some of the inequities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Focusing on such inequities inspired Jawando to push for increased tenant rights in the county, in the form of a bill signed into law this past January that requires landlords to pay relocation fees if their tenant\u2019s living space is found \u201cunfit for human habitation under certain circumstances,\u201d among other provisions geared toward improving landlord-tenant relations.<\/p>\n

Jawando graduated from the Catholic University of America with a bachelor\u2019s degree in sociology, where he played college basketball and founded the first NAACP chapter on campus. After graduating from their Columbus School of Law, he worked on Capitol Hill for many years as a civil rights attorney before joining the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

The councilmember\u2019s passion is public service, but he\u2019s also a movie buff (his favorite film is 1998\u2019s \u201cLean on Me\u201d), a lover of all things apple (think pies and cobblers, not phones and tablets) and a dedicated husband and father to four children under the age of 10.<\/p>\n

While Jawando has never been one to plan his future out too extensively, right now, he\u2019s focused on continuing to serve Montgomery County\u2019s nearly 1.1 million residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal has always been to have impact,\u201d he says, \u201c[and] help as many people as I can to have access to those great things that are in our area in this county and in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

A version of this story originally appeared in the <\/em>October-November 2020 issue of<\/em> Montgomery Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The at-large member of Montgomery County Council has been hosting virtual storytimes since the start of the pandemic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,44,61],"tags":[124,12],"yoast_head":"\nCouncilmember Will Jawando Finds Ways To Give Back, No Matter the Medium - Montgomery Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando has been hosting virtual storytime since the start of the pandemic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/councilmember-will-jawando-storytime\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Councilmember Will Jawando Finds Ways To Give Back, No Matter the Medium - 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