ELLlINWOOD – Ellinwood School-Community Library continues to spotlight students and community. Check out our highlights of the year!
Amy Hammeke and Heather Dombroski have done a fabulous job of reaching out to patrons to sign up for a library card. Amy has also created a tutorial of how to use it, and she also facilitates our Facebook page and you can find step-by-step instructions to utilize the Pathfinder system there as well. If you do not have a library card, I would encourage you to get one. It will help us with state and CKLS funding.
We brought back PAC Bingo this year and the kiddos loved it! Students bring their gently used books and when they win a bingo, they go to the table to choose a book that another student brought. Library Board member, Macey Kaiser was our caller, the PAC provided cookies and drinks, and the library provided the extra prizes.
Our displays last Spring included:
• St. Joe and St. John’s CDC display
• Twilight Stitchers Quilt Guild Display
• EHS art Students Display - thanks to Mr. Maxwell
• EGS Art Students Display - thanks to Mrs. McMullen
Family, friends, and staff gathered to congratulate Julie Blakeslee on her retirement after 20-plus years of serving our patrons, students, and staff! We wish Julie well in her retirement, and appreciate she is willing to sub for us when needed!
With Julie retiring, Amy was hired into the position of technical and public services librarian. Dana Drake was hired as Monday and Thursday evening staff. Both are doing very well in their positions!
Our All Together Now Summer Library, facilitated by Melody Johnston was filled with fun activities:
• Natalee & Jim with puppets
• Jammin’ Randy
• Wetlands Education Center
• Smoky Hills PBS Share-A-Story
The summer was wrapped up with tie-dying and other groovy activities that were collaboratively planned by Melody and Michelle Beran from Cottonwood Extension District!
Donations from our friends at Sunflower Bank and Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers were great prizes! Summer Library volunteers were Mahra Johnston, Lily Hoskins, Heidi Brauer, Braden Robl and Lydia Porter. We appreciate them helping to make this year’s summer program a great success!
Our AHF Display was 50 Years of After Harvest Festival. Memories were shared from the Museum of Ellinwood, Mike Westerman, Ron McCrary, Larry Drees, Jennifer Klepper and many other Ellinwood Patrons!
We had a few other events that took place at the library during AHF. Family Fun Bingo was a great hit! Thank you to Wayne and Terri DeWerff for calling. School tours were again led by Larry Drees. We also offered fun movies throughout the day.
USD 355 created a new Welcoming Committee and the library hosted the new staff with a Meet & Greet Chamber Coffee. New staff include:
• Parker Winter - AD/ HS PE
• Jaron Lane - business teacher
• Nichole Hartman - HS social studies teacher
• Nate Normandin - HS PE
• Darla Evers - first grade teacher
• Daniel Albertson - band
• Jodi Fullbright - kindergarten teacher
• Jodi Wesner - EGS para
• Nora Tyson - food service director
• Dana Drake - EGS para/Ellinwood School-Community Library evening staff
• Amy Hammeke - HS library assistant
• Stephanie Zorn - bus monitor
Former United Way Director, Gaila Demel, former Ellinwood Imagination Library facilitator Julie Blakeslee, Current Ellinwood Imagination Library facilitator Amy Hammeke and myself were invited to attend Dolly Parton’s visit to Kansas for the Imagination Library Statewide Celebration! We were four of 450 celebrating the significant achievement that now all Kansas children under five are eligible to enroll in the program!
Fall displays have included:
• Meet and Greet New Staff Display
• Utilize Your Library Display by Lily Hoskins
• Ellinwood Energizers 4H Club
• Hulme Trust Doll Display curated by library intern Allison Ricker
We have five TAs this year!
Last spring, Hytomi Nuno continued Senior Spotlight and this fall Gracyn Dombroski has done an excellent job of creating the bulletin board and featuring them in our Check It Out newspaper articles. She also has taken on our PILL books to be couriered, and does a great job with that as well.
Tia Blair assists Treva Paden with Baby & Me prep. When Treva went to KLA this year, Angie Coleman took Tia to the CDC to facilitate the session. Tia and the kiddos all had a good time!
Cameron Williams is TA at the EGS Library. He has probably shelved more books than he cares to, but he doesn’t complain. He has assisted in many ways with checking in/out books, helping students with projects, hanging posters and whatever else Karie or I need him to do.
Lily Hoskins has been our fall semester TA for the last two years. When we got the new plotter, she was the one we put to work creating posters for our displays. She is also in charge of our hallway bulletin board that we try to keep up with current activity pictures. We will Miss Lily next semester when she transfers to forensics, but we wish her well.
Allison Ricker is our library intern. In September, Ben Jacobs allowed me to take Allison and her mother, Terra Ricker, to the Johnson County Library in Overland Park. We visited my niece, Amanda Wahlmeier, who is the Local History Librarian, and previous curator at the Orphan Train Museum in Concordia. Being a curator is something Allison had expressed interest in, and she was given a lot of information in both fields.
Allison has accomplished many tasks while assisting in the library, but her biggest has been to organize the library doll collection, donated from the Hulme Trust, and create our amazing display. She has worked with Joyce Schulte from the museum and Julie Blakeslee, who recently retired from our library, and has learned a lot in the process!
Story Time with Karie Gibson and Baby & Me with Treva Paden will be ending this semester next week. This years’ theme was “Stick with Kindness.” We have collaborated with Lisa Rector at St. John’s CDC. Karie has added 3-year-old preschool and Treva has begun sessions for the babies room and the toddlers room. Karie is also offering a check out time at EGS Library once a month for each group.
Becky Gillette came to the library for a Chamber Coffee book signing of her book, “Something to Think About.” The book is available for our patrons to check out.
In September, I attended the Association of Rural Small Libraries Conference, which is a national conference that was held in Wichita this year. Then in November, Amy, Treva and I attended the Kansas Library Association’s Conference. These conferences provide training and ideas that we can bring to our library to enhance all that we provide to our students and patrons.
I wrote a grant application for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the ALA Public Programs: Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibit. We will hear back in January whether we are approved for the grant or not. I will be able to give more details after we hear back from the selection committee.
KNEA Reading Circle donated 60 books to our EGS library! This group chooses books for recommendations to school libraries and when they are finished, they choose libraries to donate the reviewed books to. We were one of the lucky receiving libraries! Thank you to Christie Snyder for recommending our EGS Library!
The Ellinwood Community Historical Society presented “Grave Side Conversations 2023” at the library. This was a fun night with stories of some of Ellinwood’s past residents performed by Historical Society members, as well as museum intern Jonathon Mason, and our library intern Allison Ricker.
Hoopla, an online digital service, is going through changes. As recommended by the State Library Advisory Committee, CKLS will no longer be offering this service for the system libraries after 2024. I will be asking the Library Board and the school administration if they would jointly support this service. We will use 2024 as a baseline for the cost and then determine how many borrows will be sufficient for our patrons and students.
Tanner Poteet, EHS sophomore, reached out to me because he needed to do a community service project for his life skills class, and he wanted it to be for the library as he believed it is a big part of the school and community. Our display case was having lighting issues, so I visited with Mike Baker, and they were able to get the east side changed out in a couple of class periods. It really has improved the display case, and we appreciate Mike and Tanner for a job well done!
EHS debate students participated in a mock debate at the library. Parents and patrons were able to learn what these students do to prepare for and compete in debate. Thank you to the students and Mrs. Jacobs for this opportunity!
The NHS Hope Tree had 20 tags of children needing to be remembered with gifts for Christmas. All the tags were chosen and gifts were delivered by the NHS Officers on the 15th. Thank you to the Ellinwood community for your generosity!
We also had a surprise donation of toys that went to Tara Collins for 21 foster children who would not have received a gift!
Brett Crandall performed an audience interactive “A Christmas Carol” for our EGS and St. Joseph’s students. He had some amazing student volunteers to assist him.
Have you seen our new signs?! Our old ones were a bit faded and needed to be replaced. We are loving the one designed by Ryan Koetter! He replaced all of them, and took down the old times from the building. Thank you, Ryan!
Gingerbread Houses were provided for littles to create during Christkindlmarket by the EHS KAY Club with new sponsor Nichole Hartman.
Groups we have collaborated with this past year include:
• CKLS
• EGS PAC
• St. Joseph’s School
• St. John’s CDC
• Twilight Stitchers
• Freddy’s Frozen Custard
• Sunflower Bank
• Kansas Wetlands Education Center
• Smoky Hills PBS
• City of Ellinwood
• Ellinwood Chamber
• Ellinwood Historical Society
• Museum of Ellinwood
• Ellinwood Public Education and Library Foundation
Thank you to all of our students, staff, and patrons who utilize and contribute to our local library! Wishing you all blessings in the New Year!
Sheri Holmes is the Ellinwood School-Community Library director of library services. She can be reached atsholmes@usd355.org.
