Harlem's 'Grandma Dawn' Nears Dream Of Building A Bookmobile

HARLEM, NY — Months after a successful fundraiser saved Dawn Harris-Martine's shop, generous New Yorkers have stepped up again to help the 82-year-old bookstore owner achieve a long-held dream.

Known universally as "Grandma Dawn," Harris-Martine is the proprietor and namesake of Grandma's Place, a children's bookstore on West 120th Street near Lenox Avenue. A retired teacher, she opened the shop in 1999 next door to her brownstone.

In February, facing mounting debts stemming from the pandemic, Grandma's Place was rescued by a GoFundMe that raised tens of thousands of dollars to support the store. Nicolas Heller, the Instagrammer known as New York Nico, helped publicize the campaign (with an assist by supermodel Bella Hadid).

Harris-Martine said at the time that she was setting her sights on a new goal: to open a bookmobile that could drive around Harlem, giving out free books to neighborhood kids.

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Months later, another outpouring of generosity has brought Grandma Dawn to the brink of achieving that dream. It began when Heller linked up with Brandon Stanton, the man behind the wildly popular Humans Of New York photo series, who featured Grandma Dawn in a series of posts this week alongside Tony Hillery, founder of the nonprofit Harlem Grown.

Stanton set up a fundraiser, which shot past its $500,000 goal within a day and had raised $750,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.

"I'm speechless," Harris-Martine told Patch.

Initial hopes to raise money for a dedicated bookmobile faltered when they realized it would cost upwards of $500,000 to staff, supply and maintain one.

But Hillery had another idea: building a series of small libraries across the network of 10 urban farms run by his organization. They would be stocked with books — curated by Harris-Martine — and named "Grandma's Promise" in her honor.

That's not all: Hillery now plans to construct a "Harlem Grown Mobile Teaching Kitchen," which will spread healthy-eating messages to Harlem children, conduct community events, partner with food banks to distribute food — and, at each stop, distribute books from Grandma's Promise.

"Grandma has decided 110% that the Mobile Teaching Kitchen was the ‘bookmobile’ she was seeing in her visions," Stanton wrote in the fundraiser.

The initial $50,000 raised through the GoFundMe will go to Harris-Martine herself to maintain the "roof over her head." The rest will fund the libraries and Mobile Kitchen, which are both in the works.

Harris-Martine has already filed to create a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that will oversee the effort. Meanwhile, thanks to a new online presence Grandma's Place is now busy fulfilling orders "from all around the world" that forced her to hire more employees and purchase more inventory, she said.

Amid all the activity, Grandma Dawn's goal remains simple.

"The idea is to get books in the hands of children," she said.

Related coverage:

• Harlem Rallies To Rescue Grandma's Place, Beloved Kids' Toy Store
• Harlem Man Honored For Helping Families Survive Pandemic