SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – The remnants of flood waters still linger at the Rock Valley Library.
Two-year-old Audrey Zevenbergen of Rock Valley loved to visit the old Rock Valley Library.
Stephanie Zevenbergen is Audrey’s Grandma and spent lots of time together reading,
“I took her there, and there were no doors. Everything was out of there. And she’s like, ‘Oh, broken. They’ve got to fix it,” said Stephanie. “It’s just been hard. The library means so much to so many people.”
The floods this summer took over the shelves destroying books and everything else in its path.
“Anything here down was wet,” said Nicole McRay pointing at the third shelf showing how high the water reached. ”And then on some shelves, even the bottom of the books got wet.”
Library Director Nicole McCray is rebuilding the book collection from the ground up after losing over 40,000 books.
The library is now in a new long-term, temporary space at 1503 14th Street in Rock Valley.
“We have almost 10,000 books from our original collection, which is pretty exciting and just a huge testament to how many materials are out circulating to our community,” said McCray.
Although she never asked for it, book donations were coming in by the truckload.
“I’ve had people calling me from Denver and Illinois, like the Chicago area, and just people that maybe have family in the area. Book collections were happening everywhere. I have seen well over 100,000 comes through here.” said McCray.
The staff still don’t know when they can open as there is an extensive list of things left to do like cataloging, sorting and adding covers.
“Putting spine labels on it and wrapping those books. And so each book is taking at least 10 minutes of our time,” said McCray.
They hope to open soon, with a deadline of December if all things go to plan but they ask that people be patient as they try to get the facility set up.
“Books in the library don’t make it the library like it’s also the people have to be there too,” explained McCray.
As for Audrey, she was invited to visit the new space on Wednesday.
The happy 2-year-old got to turn in her 1,000 books challenge sheet that she did with her grandma that she started and couldn’t turn in over the summer as the floods took out her favorite space. She earned her first book back from the new Rock Valley Library.
Stephanie added what it was like going to the new location when McCray invited them to get Audrey’s reward for reading 1,000 books
“We drove up, and she’s like, ‘What is this? is this a library? They’ve got toys for me!’ And she was just so excited. It will be great when. We’ll finally be able to check out some books,” said Stephanie. “We’re we’re grateful that they can get up and running, even in a small capacity here.”
When asked what her favorite book is she started quoting “The Three Little Pigs” story.
“It still doesn’t feel like a library. It just feels like a room and a space of books until the people come,” added McCray.
Staff are looking for people to help support the fundraising efforts. “We have some really fun things in the works,” McCray added.
Although the library isn’t taking any more book donations, monetary donations are welcome.
There will be a Library Book Sale on the opening day of all the extra books that were brought in.
In Full Swing for Fundraisers
There is a fundraiser coming up on Nov. 15th called “Pizza Puzzles and Pop” at Trinity Lutheran Reformed Church at 2020 8th Street Southeast in Rock Valley.
The doors open at 5:30 p.m. with the competition starting at 6 p.m.
Follow this link to register your team of four and encourage other groups to join you for some friendly competition while supporting the library!
To complete the challenge, your team must finish a large one-topping pizza, a two-liter of soda, and a 300-piece puzzle!
$120 per team of four people and this includes a pizza, a two-liter of pop, and the puzzle.
The payment and preference must be received by Thursday, Nov. 7.
Mega LiteBrite Fundraiser
You have a chance to help the library buy books to replace the ones they lost.
You can get a sneak peek inside the temporary library space thanks to a unique fundraiser.
A generous donor donated a “Mega LiteBrite.”
The public can come in and donate $20 per “peg” and put the peg in the LiteBrite.
Donors can also buy several pegs to create a design. When all the holes are filled, this project will have raised $26,500.
”We are recommending to people that they do a peg per child or person in their family, or if they want to make a design of some kind in it that they can. Multiply $20 by however many pegs it takes to make their design, whether that’s for their family, a classroom fundraiser, or some type of Small group, or book club. Ideas if they want to contribute,” said McCray.
To contribute, you can come by the new space any weekday from 4 to 5 p.m. or on Wednesday afternoons.
You can also mail a check to 1503 14th Street in Rock Valley.
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