IBEW Local 405 (Cedar Rapids, IA) Volunteers Build Library at Juvenile Home

Monday, January 17, 2005

Juvenile home library grows

Local people show generosity

By Deidre Bello
Iowa City Press-Citizen

TOLEDO -- Students at the Iowa Juvenile Home might be more inclined to visit the school library now that it is larger than a study hall.

The juvenile home was without a librarian and had little technology because of state budget cuts. But on Friday, the training school staff celebrated a grand opening of its newly improved library and the organizations that donated time and money for the effort.

The library is now about 1,400 square feet -- half the size of a tennis court. Renovation started in late September after Carol Thompson, a member of the home's Foundation Board, led a fund-raising effort that accumulated about $100,000 in donations, said Bill Skow, president of the Iowa Juvenile Home Foundation.

"The real surprise to me came from the generosity in the Iowa City-area, and most of that is because of Carol Thompson and her aggressive fund-raising," he said about the former Johnson County supervisor.

In addition, North Liberty librarians Dee Crowner, Jennie Garner and Janet Lubben volunteered time to organize the library, Skow said. The librarians are training two regular staff members along with volunteers to run the library, he said.

Staffers at the North Liberty Public Library collected between 2,000 and 3,000 books, DVDs and videos for the teen readers, said Crowner, North Liberty's library director. The librarians also bought books and plan to continue to collect adult and young adult books for the Toledo library, she said. Students helped choose furnishings, carpeting and wall colors, she said.

"They were all just amazed," Crowner said about school staffers and local officials. "I think they're going to take a lot of pride in that library."

The juvenile home is a state training school primarily for delinquent girls. It houses boys and girls who have been removed from their home by court order. Students range in age from 12 to 18. Some of the students are from Johnson County and about two-thirds are children who are victims of abuse and neglect, Thompson said.

"This gives them a nice, clean, warm environment with updated modern furnishings that will hopefully encourage them to enjoy leisure reading," Skow said. "The most important thing it does is it lets those students know that there are people out there that care and actually donated time to make their lives better."

Thompson said renovations were made possible thanks to $14,000 from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, $15,000 from the McElroy Trust, and $70,000 from individuals, state agencies, Iowa City businesses, local churches and book businesses. In addition, architect Dwight Dobberstein, with Neumann Monson Architects in Iowa City, and Russ Vlasak, from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, offered their services for free.

One of the largest donations came from a former student at the training school, Skow said.

Reach Deidre Bello at 339-7360 or dbello@press-citizen.com.

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