My library co-workers, Pat and Helen, and I arrived at
StarShine early last Tuesday to work on the children’s library. Upon our arrival, we discovered, to our
dismay, our library-folding table had disappeared. It is hard to organize
and mark books for the appropriate age groups while standing up, so we went
into action.
While Pat and Helen scoured the area around the library, I
went to the ‘front office’ in search of our table. On the way, I encountered Maria,
who joined in the search and then Mr. Dan, the Kindergarten teacher, who also
started looking for the table. By this
time I didn’t care what table I had, I just needed a table. The end result
was that I located a table and two high school boys carried it back to the
library for me. Maria went back to the kitchen, Mr. Dan went back to his classroom
and I went back to the library.
Meanwhile, Pat and
Helen scoured around and found some chairs and we were in business.
We got to work designating the books for the proper classes
using a “dot” system I initiated last year – yellow dots for kindergarten
books, orange dots on the first and second grade books and green dots on the 3rd,
4th and 5th grade books. Simple, but it works. It also
takes time to place a dot on the spine of each book and then place it on the
appropriate shelf.
I must say we were on a
roll, that is, until we suddenly ran out of the colored dots. Pat offered to drive to the nearest
office supply store to replenish our supplies. While she was shopping, Helen
and I decided to visit the middle school-high school library and see what we
were facing after the move. We stood and
looked at a perfect mess – at least a dozen large boxes full of books with some
boxes piled on the book shelves, 5 or 6 chairs and a vacuum cleaner. Just like
at home, any empty room becomes a depository for things you don’t know where to
put!
We scurried (as much as elderly women can scurry) back to the
children’s library. Pat had arrived with new supplies and we set about getting
the job done. This library is coming together nicely with only one small
bookcase to put together (my husband volunteered for that job) and several
comfy chairs for the children in an adjoining room we call, ‘The Book Nook’. So, we’re almost ready
to invite the children into their new library. Then we’ll move on to the older
students’ library.
We broke for lunch and decided to try the new Mexican
restaurant across the street from the school, only to discover it is a Mexican
grocery store. A pizza place was just few doors away so we made our way to it
and discovered it was only take-out. We then spied a coffee café, and that’s
all they offered, coffee. The last choice was a sandwich shop and we felt like
we’d found the golden chalice. Over lunch we laughed ourselves silly and agreed
we were doing okay for ‘oldsters’.
Later in the day, I thought about my time with my friends and
the children at StarShine and I thought – this
is what volunteering is all about – doing worthwhile things for others and
having a heck of a fun time doing it.
If you enjoyed this inspirational Kids Without Stuff story about the joys of volunteering, you will
want to read:
