Students and parents explore the newly created school library at Greenwood Christian Academy while Jo Ellen Weems, far right, a former teacher at the school who helped spearhead the library project, watches on Thursday. The school community celebrated the creation of Greenwood Christian Academy’s first school library with a special program featuring Karen Pence, former Second Lady of the United States.
RYAN TRARES | DAILY JOURNAL
The stenciled script on the walls welcomed visitors with a message: “Wisdom is a tree of life to those who take hold of it.”
Colorful murals decorated the space, as a stylized alphabet danced across one corner. Colorful framed artwork spelled out “BOOKS.” And of course, shelves and shelves of novels, chapter books, picture stories and more invited students to get lost in literacy.
For the first time ever, students at Greenwood Christian Academy South had a library of their own.
The school commemorated the opening of its first school library Thursday night, as the school community and local leaders gathered in celebration. Students and their parents had a chance to tour the new space, take photographs inside it, and pick up information from the Greenwood and Johnson County library systems.
Karen Pence, the former Second Lady of the United States as well as a former elementary school teacher, author and book illustrator, spoke about her own experience with literacy and the importance of this new library.
“I’ve been up there. It’s a very, very special place,” she said. “Books have the ability to educate, to inspire, to motivate, to challenge and to encourage the reader.”
For the countless volunteers, donors and supporters who made the library a reality, Thursday proved to be a moment worth celebrating.
“It’s amazing to see what the body of Christ and the Johnson County community has done for our children — that they’ll have a place to learn and to read,” said Jo Ellen Weems, a former teacher at Greenwood Christian Academy and a volunteer who helped spearhead the library project.
A library at Greenwood Christian Academy South has been a vision of school staff, students and parents for many years. The problem they kept running into was finding the space that could accommodate it. With the school housing preschool through grade 12, open rooms were a luxury.
That changed in 2021, when the high school moved into its new building.
“Then the idea started bubbling up that this could happen,” Weems said.
As school leaders weighed its options, many classrooms and other spaces were claimed for other needs. One of the few remaining rooms open was the former weight room — an admittedly stinky, but suitable place, Weems said.
The Ready to Read Library Project was born.
But the school community banded together, and work quickly started on turning the weight room into a literacy center.
“At the time, there was no budget for books, shelving, equipment or salaries. While GCA’s facilities team set to work painting the walls and replacing the carpet, the Lord was quietly gathering others who would volunteer their time, talents and treasures to this endeavor,” Weems said.
Support started flowing in from the community, who provided monetary donations throughout the process. Organizers sold handcrafted greeting cards, and took advantage of school book fairs where people could purchase books to donate to the library.
JCREMC, the local electric cooperative serving the county, provided two grants totaling $6,500 in 2021 and 2022 to support the library through its Operation Round-Up program. Pete and Melissa Wojtowicz, who own a local McDonald’s franchise, also provided a grant.
Students got involved, as well. One student held a bake sale and gave the profits to buy books. Another asked guests at her birthday party to donate books
“It really was a wonderful example of people coming together to do a wonderful thing for our students,” Weems said. “We started with nothing, and hit what seemed like brick wall after brick wall. But the Lord provided over and over again.”
The school was able to purchase discounted library shelving from the Johnson County Public Library from the old Clark-Pleasant branch as the library system opened the new one.
Boxes and boxes of donated books came in, and the school was able to buy discounted books from area libraries.
“We had lots of volunteers come in and clean books, shelve books, preview books. We had teachers come in during the summer. A parent with a design degree did some wonderful things for us,” Weems said. “It’s just been an incredible volunteer effort.”
But even with the supplies, organizers were overwhelmed by the enormity of setting up a library — how do they start cataloging the collection, how do they choose a cataloging system and how to choose a check-out system, among other questions.
“I read in the newspaper about some retiring educators, and one was a librarian at Indian Creek Elementary. So I called her, and she got right back to me,” Weems said. “She helped tremendously with our system.”
Greenwood Public Library staff also helped organizers set up the library by subjects, rather than by using the Dewey Decimal System. The library had made that change years before, and worked with Greenwood Christian Academy to put books in categories that made sense, Weems said.
The entire project came to a close this school year, and on Thursday, it was officially time to dedicate the space.
Students, families, teachers and more from the Greenwood Christian Academy community packed the school’s gymnasium for a short program and open house. Weems spoke about the journey of creating the library, while Kevin Jackson, the co-superintendent of the school, described how it had impacted Greenwood Christian Academy as a whole.
“What I love the most about libraries is the potential,” Jackson said. “There’s so much information, so many stories, so much creativity and knowledge and wisdom just waiting to be unlocked on those shelves.”
Adilyn Walker, a eighth-grader at the school described as a “voracious reader,” helped introduce Pence. In addition to her role as Second Lady, she has also written her own book, “When It’s Your Turn to Serve: Experiencing God’s Grace in His Calling for Your Life.”
She also illustrated three children’s books written by her daughter, Charlotte Pence, about the Pence family’s pet bunny Marlon Bundo. She shared some of Marlon’s experience in Washington D.C.
“For some reason, unloading Marlon in his cage off of Air Force Two created quite a buzz of excitement,” she said.
Pence also praised the efforts of Greenwood Christian Academy to build the library, and the Christian school environment as a whole.
“Having taught for 30 years myself, and the last 16 were in a Christian school, I believe in Christian education for our children. It gives our young people the foundation of building everything upon the truth of Christ. Everything else can build on top of that,” she said.
After her remarks, people were free to explore the new library. A display featured the favorite books of Greenwood Christian Academy teachers. Families spoke with representatives from Greenwood Public Library and Johnson County Public Library passed out information about their programs and signed people up for library cards.
Pence met with students and signed copies of her book just outside the library space. She also read from “Marlon Bundo: A Day in the Life of the Vice President.”
For Weems, the library project was a personal passion. Her mother had served on the library board of the small town of Kingman when she was growing up; Weems herself spent about a decade on the board of the Johnson County Public Library.
“My heart is in books and libraries and children. I’m just so humbled and grateful for all the people who came together. It’s been an amazing experience to see it reach fruition,” she said.
