We organized the books by month.
by Juliette Nasarenko Ventura High School Senior
When I first came to the Douglas Penfield School to volunteer I was told that they were working to transform one of the classrooms into a library. I first walked into the classroom and I saw thousands of children’s books scattered throughout several boxes on the floor. I felt relieved that I would not have to organize these books alone.
Natalie McGranahan had just started organizing the books. I remember thinking that this was going to be a long project. Both Natalie and I are members of the National Charity League which is a Mother-Daughter Volunteer Organization that is located throughout the country.
The Douglas Penfield School is a preschool and elementary school for kids with severe disabilities and has been around since 1980 and has never had its own library. So, we decided to organize the books by month. For example, the February shelf has Valentine’s Day, Firefighters/Police books, and doctor/staying safe books. We also have an animal section, a transportation section, a fairytale section, etc.
When all the books finally were put on the shelves we were excited to finally decorate the library. Sydney Traub who is also a volunteer at the Penfield Library helped us with this endeavor. We made a Giving Tree, designed a house for the students where they could read, and decorated the walls. The employees and teachers at the Douglas Penfield School were so excited about the opening of their first library that we wanted to share this with the Ventura Community.
