After a beloved librarian’s tragic death, her colleagues honored her by making the road safer

After the tragic death of Gayle Ball, a Springfield, Mass., librarian who was killed by a car while crossing a busy street outside her workplace, her co-workers decided that enough was enough.

There was no crosswalk on State Street outside the Springfield City Library, where they work. And Ball’s death wasn’t the first one — in 2014, a 7-year-old girl was killed at the same spot.

And so, the library workers, members of AFSCME Local 1596A (Council 93), got to work. Mobilizing and organizing, they raised their voices and called for a crosswalk to be created in the 200 block of State Street to prevent any future tragedies.

They stood outside the library to call attention to the issue and never gave up. Their efforts paid off recently when the crosswalk was finalized.

“It does seem like the new crosswalk has slowed traffic down a lot, which is good for everybody, for other drivers, for pedestrians, for library patrons,” said branch supervisor Chelsea Bell.

Ball was a well-loved librarian who had been working late on the night of her death.

“Not only was she an incredible, hard worker who was amazingly generous, she would go above and beyond to help people,” said Elizabeth McKinstry, a training and programming librarian. “She was trying to do the right thing for the library and for the people that depended on her. And we owe her to make sure nobody forgets that.”