Caring librarian retires and hopes successor will continue book donations to the food bank

BY JANA SEMENIUK

Lamont

Elementary

School’s librarian Nora Wisselink has retired after 10 years.

It’s not only a loss for the school, but also a loss for the County of Lamont Food Bank who were the recipients of Wisselink’s thoughtfulness for the past few years with her once-ayear donation of children’s books from the school to add to their weekly food hampers.

County of Lamont Food Bank Board Chair Jody Zachoda said Wisselink’s donations made a difference to those in need of the foodbank by providing them with books to support their children’s reading. Meanwhile, Wisselink said being a librarian was her dream job after starting her career as a teacher and taking a break to raise her four children.

“I was a teacher before, (and) stayed home with my kids so when my kids were older, I really wanted to get back into the school,” she said. “It's just such a privilege to be part of a child's education.”

Wisselink said a speaker during one of their professional development days made her consider donating books to the food bank.

“In one of our PD sessions we had a speaker in from ‘Calgary Reads’. Quite an interesting organization in Calgary, and in her presentation, she listed off some of the things that they did as an organization (and) one of the other smaller things that they do is every year they donate books to the food bank, and I thought, well, that's a good idea,” said Wisselink.

Wisselink’s plan began to take shape.

She said that every year the school has a scholastic book fair where the school earns book credit and every month the school also does a fundraiser called

‘Loonies for Lamont’.

“I suggested, why don't we, during the month of bookfair, have the (Loonies for Lamont) money go towards buying books for the food bank, and then I'll match it with book credit money from the book fair? So it would give us double the amount of books,” she said.

Wisselink said the library was able to donate approximately $300 worth of preschool age books every year.

“The books that we donate to the food bank are more preschool books, not school aged kids’ books, because those kids have access to their classroom libraries and the school library. We want to encourage parents at that very young age,” she said. “What a wonderful experience that is to just spend time reading to their kids.”

Wisselink said she hopes someone at the school will continue with