A Day in the Life of a New Outreach Specialist

Submitted by Sariah Homan 

My first week in Outreach last November was not all sunshine, roses, bubblegum, or even lollipops. 

Our Outreach Team from left to right: Sariah Homan, Katie LeDuc,
Brooke West (Outreach Manager), Jeanine Thompson, and Joanie Goforth 

While shadowing Joanie at her Golden Hour presentation, I decided to take a seat in a comfy looking chair. Wouldn’t you know I sat in half dried urine that clung to me like spray from a skunk. That stink permeated everything I sat on from the van to my work chair. I will admit I had a bit of a freak-out moment when I discovered what happened and it made me wonder if I could actually do this job. Now that I am six months in, I have recognized what a shallow thought that was. Nothing can measure the impact the Outreach Department has on our community. I have been so impressed by the work we do at each bookmobile stop and the interactions each of our staff has at our Golden Hours, Lobby Stops, and more.

When I started in this department, I thought I understood the many jobs Outreach performs. I was sorely mistaken. We provide services to every age from 0 to 100. (Not exaggerating on the 100 years old. We have a patron at the assisted living center that turned 100 this year.) I have been able to interact with the beautiful individuals who are sometimes forgotten or unseen in our community. This job has shown me some of the best parts of humanity both inside our building and outside.

Bookmobile Stops

We visit a total of 29 monthly Bookmobile stops. Many of our stops are in places where we feel the populace may not have a regular opportunity to visit libraries due to distance and economic disadvantage. Each location is carefully studied before we decide to commit to a monthly stop. The patrons at these stops melt our hearts and come from every age and walk of life.

Stop Breakdown:

• 1 Boys and Girls Club
• 3 elementary schools that we are partnering with The Place, which is a food pantry and more, and Forsyth Community Clinic, which provides free basic health care 
• 22 neighborhood stops
• Various special appearances like YMCA Healthy Kids Day or Denmark Spring Fling

Golden Hours

Golden Hour is a special program developed by Outreach for our older adult communities. Each month we develop an interactive program that we think would be educational, interesting and hopefully help bring back joyous memories or make new memories for our older adults. They love when we come and we love getting to know our patrons on a whole new level. We listen to stories and learn about their lives, and also bring books that they have requested or we have picked for them according to their interests. We visit 14 different facilities throughout the month to lead our Golden Hour programs.

Lobby Stops

Lobby Stops are something incredibly unique to Forsyth County. We load up about 120 books hand-picked from the libraries, then we take the books and set up mini libraries at seven senior living facilities throughout the county. We also bring in bags of books that are either requested from our patrons or books that patrons have asked us to pick for them. We bring up to 35 bags to these stops. We also help them pick out and obtain copies of books for their book clubs. Residents from these facilities are near and dear to our hearts, and they tell us memories from their lives, both happy and sad.

Community Storytimes

Almost every month we present a Therapeutic Storytime to our teens with special needs that attend programs at Central Park. This is something we love doing and have been asked to do more of. 

We also present a Storytime at Halcyon once a month from April to October. We have huge crowds and it is incredibly fun to play, sing and read with some of our smallest and cutest patrons.

I have learned, loved, and enjoyed the last six months in Outreach but the major take away: DON’T SIT IN THE COMFY SEAT!