Council Elementary Library Volunteers Receive Grant to Purchase New Books
Angie Mendenhall started volunteering in the Council Elementary School library when her family first moved to Council, just because she loved libraries. At that time, the classroom aides were responsible for shelving the books and checking them out. There was no school librarian. Soon after, Rorrie Blanton, who also was working as an aide, started joining her. Both women have a passion for reading, libraries, and helping the children, and have been working hard to transform the Council Elementary Library into the best place they can for the students. With that goal in mind, Angie started applying for grants that might help the library, and recently, they received one!
Angie Mendenhall applied for the Dorothy Louise Kyler Fund, a grant through the John Eldred Jr. Foundation, that helps to grow circulation in rural libraries, and they were awarded the grant for $3500! They are using these funds to purchase new books for the library. “We’re really just trying to upgrade the age of the books,” said Rorrie. All of the books are very old. Last summer, while doing an inventory of the library, the two discovered that the average publication date of the books in the school library was 1995! So they sent out surveys to the different classrooms for recommendations from students and teachers on what they would like to see more of in the library. So far, they have purchased around 200 new books. They are also trying to fill in gaps in series that are already in the library, and have been removing duplicates to make room for the new arrivals.
Angie and Rorrie are both full of ideas to rejuvenate the library. “We do everything together,” said Rorrie, “I come up with ideas and I throw them at her, and she does the same.” In addition to new books, they have also been redesigning the layout of the library to make it a more comfortable and inviting place for the children. They also want to upgrade some of the library furniture and make a nice reading nook. They created a library helpers program for the older students that has been a huge success, and have been working on establishing library protocols and a library manual that can outlast them. They have a plethora of ideas to help improve the library. “I feel like we work really well together on figuring out what’s best for the kids,” said Rorrie.
Angie is the grant writer. One thing many people don’t realize is that the Council Elementary Library is automatically disqualified from most grants because they don’t have a school librarian. Despite that, Angie has just found and applied for another grant for next year. They also did a fundraiser last fall where they sold some of the duplicate books and made around $200, primarily due to some generous donations. Angie already has a running list for the next order, in case they get another grant, and she welcomes suggestions from students, teachers, and parents. One of the biggest deficits they found was in their nonfiction, so that might be the focus of the next order as well.
Both Angie Mendenhall and Rorrie Blanton plan to return next year. “I’m definitely going to volunteer next year, this is a huge passion of mine” said Rorrie. The Council Elementary Library closed for new check-outs last week, but students have until the end of the school year to return items. Then Rorrie and Angie will be busy over the summer continuing their work in the library, so they can help all the students discover a real love of reading.
