Jason Evans/Courier

The Dacusville Community Library is volunteer-driven. Pictured here are a few of the volunteers. Standing, from left, are Anne Mowbray, Shannon Sutton, Robin Duncan and Susan Childers. Seated are Marean Duncan and Julie Howard.

By Jason Evans

Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

DACUSVILLE — A former middle school library has been given new life — as a library for the entire community.

The Dacusville Community Library is located in the former Dacusville Middle School building, now known as the Dacusville Community Center.

The library is staffed entirely by a group of dedicated volunteers — volunteers who are gratified by the support the library is receiving from the community.

Susan Childers and Robin Duncan recently spoke to the Courier about how the library came to be and what volunteers hope to accomplish in the future.

The county purchased the former school site and gave it to the Dacusville community. Community responses to a questionnaire given about what the building should be used for revealed residents wanted services that the town hadn’t had before.

“From the very beginning, we wanted a library desperately, and the county wanted us to have a library, but there were no funds,” Childers said. “There was no room to put (another county branch library) here.”

Last year, a group of volunteers came together to make a library in Dacusville a reality.

In addition to Childers and Duncan, the volunteers are Anne Mowbray, Shannon Sutton, Julie Howard, Mary McGowan, Marean Duncan, Cathy Spalding and Rhonda Marley.

“We had a lofty goal,” Childers said. “Opening the doors up to a library in June, that same year.”

They wanted the library to open its doors the first Saturday in June.

When the group’s work began, the former school library was “completely blank,”  empty not only of books, but missing furniture and most of the shelves as well, Childers said.

“Everything was just a blank canvas,” she said.

This bear supervising the library was donated by a volunteer. The bear’s outfit “changes with the season,” Susan Childers said.  Jason Evans/Courier

County councilman Tom Ponder helped the group put the word out about needing donations of books and other items for the library. Work began on cleaning up the building and preparing it for use.

Once the call for help and donations went out, the response didn’t take long.

“The word got out,” Childers said. “We had people traveling from Seneca, Oconee County and parts of Greenville to help us out. It was just word of mouth. They were like, ‘We understand you want to open a library.’”

Jason Evans/Courier

This bookstore is a way for the library to winnow down multiple copies of the same book, while raising money for the library. “If the library’s open, the store’s open,” said volunteer Robin Duncan.

Furniture stored at the S.C. State Department was secured for the library’s use. Volunteers got to work sorting the thousands of donated books and cleaning furniture.

The Dacusville Middle School Beta Club and teenage volunteers were a big help to the cause.

“All summer,” Duncan said. “They spent the whole summer after we got started in volunteering.”

The group met their goal. The Dacusville Community Library opened on the first Saturday in June. It is the first public library in Dacusville’s history.

“We’re just very appreciative of the community,” Childers said. “They’ve just embraced this.”

“They’ve been good to us,” Duncan said.

Those who came to the Dacusville Community Library’s opening last June signed a special memento, pictured here with Susan Childers, to commemorate the day. By:Jason Evans/ The Courier

Are you bad about remembering when your books are due? There are no worries at the Dacusville Community Library. They don’t charge late fees.

“We don’t give anybody a hassle about it,” Duncan said. “There’s no library card fee either.”  “We’re very old-school,” Childers said.

Upon opening, one of the group’s main goals was starting a summer reading program in Dacusville.

“A lot of them won’t venture out to Easley or Pickens, to the other libraries,” Childers said. “We’re trying to draw them in here.”

They began offering a story time for children.

The library opens at 9 a.m. on Saturdays. Storytime for the children begins at 10 a.m.

“We have an activity for the children after storytime,” Childers said.

That first summer, refreshments were provided for the kids.

“We wanted to make sure they had some kind of a lunch,” Duncan said.

The first summer went very well.

“We had children coming in for storytime and checking out books and things,” Childers said.

Rick Lollis built many of the library’s shelves and donated them.

“He’s been wonderful,” Duncan said. “That’s thousands of dollars in woodwork right there. I don’t know what we’d do without him.”

Supporters have been generous financially as well. The Heritage Committee has donated some funds, and the library received some money from Farm Days as well.

“We’re always taking book donations,” Childers said.

Volunteers have created a way to deal with multiple donations of the same books — while raising funds for the library.

They run a small used bookstore, just off the main library rooms. Paperbacks are available for $1. Hardbacks are $2.

“All the books are very cheap,” Childers said. “All the money goes back into the library to get other things that we need. It’s all volunteers that run this. We get no compensation whatsoever, except to watch the people coming in — that’s a wonderful thing.”

The women encourage others to join in and help with the library.

“We need more volunteers,” Duncan said.

More volunteers would allow the library to expand its hours.

The library is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well. Duncan has recently started doing hours from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays.

The library will have Wi-Fi soon.

“We’re hoping that will help people in the community who don’t have access to that,” Childers said. “This is a good, safe, friendly place they can come in and get their Wi-Fi.”

Duncan said the group is trying to start a computer room.

“We need donations for the computer room,” she said.

The library displays local artwork, including the latest quilts from the Quilts of Valor group.

Artist Tom Flowers donated a pen-and-ink drawing of the old Dacusville School. Work from young artists at the local elementary schools and middle schools is also displayed.

Volunteers are preparing the kickoff of this year’s summer reading program, which will launch on Saturday, June 4, from 9 a.m.-noon.

“Because that is the kickoff Saturday, we’re making it extra special for the children,” Childers said. “We’ll be doing some different things to promote it and have refreshments and things like that for them.”

“The children can sign up,” Childers said. “It’s a little sheet that colors off — ‘I’ve done this much reading, this much reading.’ They’ll get rewards for that when they bring it in.”

At the end of the summer reading program, grand prizes will be given to “those readers who have really excelled with their reading,” she said.

This year’s summer reading program theme is “Growing Good Readers.” The library is partnering with Dacusville Elementary School “so that the children can come to the library and get their books,” Childers said.

Local beekeepers will present a program that ties into the summer reading program. Amanda Bauknight, who served on the state board for Water Conservation, will also be a presenter.

“She’s going to do a water cycle program for us,” Duncan said. “The Gardening Club is going to do something for us. We’re going to have different activities.”

The head of Pickens High School’s English Department is getting a list together of required summer reading to give to the library.

“We’re going to have a special section so that the kids know that they can come to the library and get those without having to go out and purchase those books for their summer reading,” Childers said. “We’re talking to the middle school for the same thing.”

One challenge is getting the word out on the library’s existence and location. A banner will be placed near the road soon.

The library’s main goal is putting books in homes.

“We just want people to read,” Childers said. “Literacy is just so important.”

They want to fight the decay in reading skills that Childers saw often during her career as a first-grade teacher.

“If the child doesn’t read over the summer, there would be a definite drop in reading level,” Childers said. “I saw it every year. It makes a huge, huge difference.”