On the Road With Outreach: Wash, Dry, Fold & Read!

Submitted by Karina Segura

Every week, the Outreach Team visits the local laundromats in town to replenish the bookshelves with donated books, refill with a new set of monthly themed preschool packets, promote library programs, and, of course, tidy up and clean the book nook area.

In October, Kandy gave our laundromat bookshelves a beautiful facelift! She created headers for the back of the bookshelves and they came out great! (See photo below.) One of the staff members that works at City Laundromat complimented the new look and said she really liked it. (We love our community’s feedback!) Kandy also made mini flyers to promote the Conversational English programs at our branches. Not only are these super cute, but they’re also fun-size so that patrons can take one from the community board and easily put it in their wallet or pocket.

Outreach is excited to add an additional laundromat – The Wash Pot located on Highway 9 just past Lakewood 400 Antique Mall. After seeing the impact that Outreach was having in both laundromats, Lorraine made it her goal to get a book nook in the last laundromat in the county. We look forward to sharing library services with laundromat patrons at The Wash Pot in the very near future. 

Keep reading to learn more about our wonderful weekly interactions while out at our local laundromats…

Karina – Thursday, January 13th:

Today, I had lovely visits at each laundromat. (I was on a mission today and oh boy, did the universe deliver!) While at 315 Laundry, I saw a sweet lady sitting there reading her magazine, so I approached her and let her know about our visits and what we do. I asked her what she was interested in so that I could bring something for her next week. She said she’d LOVE crafting books or magazines. A few minutes later, I interrupted her again (I felt so bad but she didn’t mind at all) because I remembered that Cumming has their Crafternoon program tomorrow. I made sure to talk it up and invited her to join – she was very thankful for the information and said she will do her best to stop by. Yay!

While at City, I spotted a young mom and her adorable little girl. I approached them and asked if they spoke Spanish or English and mom happily replied, “Both!” I asked if they had seen our book nook corner and invited them to follow me over. The little girl was a bit shy at first, but as soon as I pulled out a cute Shopkins book, she lit up and extended her hand out to take it. I also grabbed a board book for her from the display and both she and mom were excited to start looking through it. I explained to mom that we also always have preschool packets available in the basket. She thanked me and they headed back to their spot by the windows. As I was freshening up the display, I could hear the little girl squealing, and as I was heading out, I glanced over and they were working on the preschool packet together. This made my day!

Karina –  Monday, April 11th:

At 315, I met a sweet momma and her adorable 4 year-old named Gabino. (He had the curliest head of hair!) Mom asked what I was doing, so I went into the whole spiel about the library and outreach services. She was intrigued and asked lots of questions – I loved it! She asked about programs available for her preschooler and the summer reading program. I told her about the weekly storytimes and the biweekly preschool programs on Fridays at the branches. We also talked about the importance of reading and speaking in Spanish and how parents can help their children preserve their culture through language. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with her and feel grateful that I ran into her at the laundromat.

Christine – Friday, June 3rd:

At the 315 laundromat I met a sweet young man Elias and his little sister Carolina. I invited them to come over and take a look at the books. I showed Carolina the new donated book about farm animals and her eyes just lit up. Then, I asked Elias if he liked Lego Ninjas and he was like, ”Yeah!”. The mom was so sweet and she told me that she enjoys looking at the books with her children.

Karina – Tuesday, June 14th:

Visited the laundromats today and met a patron that I always used to see at Cumming. (CU staff you all know him – Mr. Moises!) He said he always wondered who came out to the laundromats to put out the books, and now he knows that it’s his library friends!

(Update: Since this interaction, we have all occasionally bumped into Mr. Moises while we’re out at the laundromats, and we’ve really gotten to know him. We have learned that Moises has beautiful handwriting, is from Michoacan, Mexico, has family in Gainesville, and is not a fan of having dogs inside the house.)

Karina – Thursday, July 7th:

As soon as I got to 315, I saw my adorable friend Elias with his mom and equally adorable little sister. Elias and Carolina recognized me and knew that I was there to freshen up our bookshelf. Elias walked over with a huge grin and offered to help. So I gave him and Carolina each a disinfectant wipe and had them wipe down one chair as I did the other – we all made sure to use some hand sanitizer when we were done. We made a great team, and afterwards I talked to them about our awesome Bookmobile! I asked mom where they lived and learned that they’re right off Exit 16 in the “car streets” neighborhood. (I couldn’t believe it!) I got super excited and told them all about our new Bookmobile stop there. Mom mentioned that her husband was going to take the kids last month, but they went out to lunch and by the time they got back we were already gone. Mom also said that she saw our Bookmobile stop being promoted on the Chattahoochee Facebook page and asked how she could find out about other stops, so I took a moment to show her how to access our Bookmobile calendar on her phone. Then, sweet Elias asked what all we have on the Bookmobile, and, of course, I dramatically replied with, “EVERYTHING!” He and Caroline started laughing, and then I went into my little spiel and asked them to pinky promise me that they would come visit us on Saturday. Elias told me that right before school ended, he was reading Black Beauty and that he never had a chance to finish it. (The fact that he wanted to desperately know how the book ended made me so happy and sad all at the same time.) Obviously, when I got back to HQ, I made it my life mission to find a copy of Black Beauty for him so that I would have it for our Saturday Bookmobile stop.