Sister School Stuff

When I first came to Rochester, the high school Drew enrolled in was experiencing cutbacks. They had to lay off the librarian, and the oversight for the collection of books fell to a parent who had been volunteering in the library. When she could no longer help, the doors were closed. Imagine a high school without a library! Imagine an elementary school with no library. Tragic.

I had mentioned to the new principal that I would be willing to help, and he gave me the go ahead to do what I could. After pulling together a committee, we put the books back on the shelf in proper order, cleaned and painted the room, washed the windows, cleaned the carpets, and solicited help getting things cataloged that had arrived. The parent who had helped before was hired on a part time basis to keep things going.

But it was clear that without ongoing support, the tenuous beginning might melt away. So our library made a decision to adopt the Finney Library as our sister institution. We have offered library instruction and research training in our instruction lab, investigated ways to fund their online catalog expenses, earned free books for them through our annual Scholastic Book sale, and tried to assist in whatever way we can.

This month we solicited, from various offices here at Roberts, donations to put in a backpack which will be sold at the Finney fundraiser auction. People here are so generous, we were able to send two backpacks filled with Roberts paraphernalia, each worth around $100. I packed them up today and carted them home to send them off with Drew. I really enjoy helping out. Sure hope we can continue to extend a helping hand to keep those doors open.