Valero teams up with Charles City Library to donate children’s books

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Whether it’s coats, shoes or food, there’s often a drive to help out those who may need assistance.

So Valero Renewables in Charles City decided it would be a good idea to collect some books and distribute them.

Valero donated more than 300 children’s books to the Charles City Library on Thursday.

“Well we call it a book swap, but that’s not exactly what it is. It’s just books available for kids to borrow without having their library card. That’s kind of the whole idea of it,” said Dana Schwickerath, former youth director at the Charles City Library.

Kim Wilson of Valero, who is a member of the Friends of the Library, helped spearhead the project along with Library Director Annette Dean.

“We asked employees to bring in books. Our volunteer council actually organized it,” said Wilson. “There were a few hardcovers that I just threw in there, too.”

The final book count tallied 314, according to Wilson. She said it took about two weeks to round up that many books.

Some volunteers gathered books at consignment stores or found reading material during spring cleaning that they could give away. Wilson, along with Jan Adams and Valero Charles City Plant Manager Chad Buffington, helped bring the books to the library.

“Especially with children, a lot of times the parents will worry about if they lose the book or damage the book. Then they won’t check books out,” said Schwickerath. “It’s like ‘take these two on the honor system,’ as I like to say, and return them when you’re done. We don’t want there to be barriers so it’s just another way to let people check books out here and continue reading.”

Schwickerath said the library accepts donated books and has done a paperback drive before for non-children’s books.

“It’s an honor system. People come up and say they have five paperbacks. That’s really all they have to do,” said Schwickerath.

Adams was named Valero Volunteer of the Year last June for her efforts with the Charles City Valero Volunteer council.

“That’s just part of our core philosophy, is giving back to our communities, and we do it various ways,” said Adams.