Jennifer Rand had her heart broken on Monday.
The State High learning enrichment teacher says she felt “a real sadness and sense of loss” when she learned that a frozen pipe had burst in the Schlow Centre Region Library, destroying roughly 1,500 books and closing the building until sometime next week.
But Rand isn’t taking the loss sitting down.
She and five other State College Area School District Employees are going canning in front of the library on Saturday from ten a.m. to four p.m., braving the snowy weekend forecast to raise funds for Schlow in its hour of need.
As a former English teacher, Rand appreciates the breadth of books the library makes available to the public – but her sense of loss runs deeper than just her love of written word.
“Schlow is a local treasure. I see people of all ages that gather there,” she says. “I’d take my kids to children’s area and they’d play with the trains and toys, and there are kid’s plays that Penn State puts on there, there are clubs, there’s tutoring that happens there. There’s just so much the library does for this community.”
Schlow public relations manager Susanna Paul says the library will be closed until at least Thursday as library staffers work to clean up and dry out. Paul says this process is time-consuming because library staff has to be very thorough, or else they might miss something and risk mold or other long-term problems.
Paul says the library lost a total of 1,499 books – mostly biographies, but a number of young adult titles were also destroyed – as well as over 600 audiobooks and over $1,000 worth of educational children’s toys.
But while Paul says it’s “truly painful” to stay closed, she takes some comfort in seeing what the school district employees are doing.
“Much like the school district, the library is in the business of providing public education, so we’re very touched by the show of solidarity,” Paul says. “It’s not surprising that a group of individuals who have dedicated their professional lives to helping others are rising to the occasion once again.”
Kate Hoffman, an English teacher at the high school who will join Rand in front of the library, says they’ve received a very supportive response from the rest of the community.
A Facebook page for the event reveals that over 150 people plan to stop by, and many community groups, such as the State College Young Professionals, have been promoting the event on social media.
School district superintendent Bob O’Donnell says that, even though the district didn’t formally plan or endorse the fundraiser, he’s very proud to see district employees stepping up to benefit an important community resource.
“The folks at Schlow are wonderful partners to our district and families,” O’Donnell says. “I am grateful for this partnership and proud that our teachers are helping them recover during this unfortunate time.”
Hoffman says she’s never done anything like this before, and has “no concept” of how much they’ll be able to raise. But as long as she’s able to help in some small way, she’ll be happy.
“I hope that anyone walking by would want to help, even if they just gave a dollar, because if 20 people each gave a dollar, then that’s one more book they can buy,” Hoffman says. “I don’t think most people realize how much we can accomplish if we all work together.”
Donations to library can also be made online through the Schlow Library website.
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