NewsRecord Weekly Publication

Library’s 

fantastic four

‘Friends’ rejoice over more kids coming for workshop

                Three years after a group of concerned women formed the Friends of the Library to institutionalize the Summer Reading Program for elementary pupils, the project has finally soared high. Four Friends  are now ripping the fulfilling joy of seeing the program flourish and reaching more and more kids every year.

                The Summer Reading Program actually started in 2004 through the effort of City Librarian Fe M. Enilog but back then it was not a crowd drawer and did not have a varied set of activities to offer its few participants. City officials, even, could not be seen as its avid supporters.

                But Enilog's bosom friends came to the rescue and formally formed the Friends of the Library in 2009, a Securities and Exchange Commission registered support organization with members who aim to render volunteer work for the library and all its activities. This group used to be the Book Week Committee. Friends was also the inspired by Enilog's Filipino-American friend, Manny Ramirez, a library and reading advocate.

                With an initial number of 20 members, these retired professionals and teachers became the storytellers and facilitators for the Summer Reading Program which now includes an Art Workshop.

Teacher forever

                One member who serves as the group's leader and binding force its President,s Mrs. Ofelia B. Layumas, a retired public school teacher and now owner of Step Ahead Preschool Zone. Layumas, 77, served as English teacher at the Cong. Vicente Gustilo, Sr. Memorial Elementary School (CVGSMES) for 42 years (1958-2000). Despite her advanced age, she continues to educate children and refuses to accept the lame excuse that some kids are plainly dull.

Mrs. Ofelia Layumas, Friends of the Library President, retired grade school teacher

                "Even in my sleep, I dream of talking to kids," she affectionately said. She also recalled that even though their organization is relatively young, she has supported the library ever since she can remember because she believes in the value of reading and that it holistically develops a child because it involves visual, auditory, critical thinking and motor skills.

                Layumas, who considers children's literature as a door for the kids' values formation, would sometimes bring hand puppets to make her storytelling sessions lively, fun, colorful, and memorable.

                During the interview with NRWP, the children who filled the ground floor of the library broke into a merry and busy noise. She smiled and said, "This is a very good program," pointing at how much fun the kids are having and that this year, the Friends did not even campaign. A total of 115 kids just came to enroll. Last year, there were only about 60.

Art guru

                Another pillar of the Friends is  retired Colegio de Sto. Tomas-Recoletos social studies teacher Julieta dela Rosa. Five years after retirement, it still surprises her former students that dela Rosa now facilitates the Summer Art Workshop in two sessions, twice a week at the library.

Ms. Julieta Dela Rosa, art workshop facilitator, retired social studies teacher

                She clearly recalls that the art workshop was introduced to give kids a different activity aside from reading. Some kids, she added, have potential in art that they even ask to attend only the art workshop.

                Dela Rosa, who credits her family of artists for her natural, though late-blooming, artistic side, started teaching mosaic, then moved on to drawing and pattern-making. This summer she focuses on basic origami skills. She particularly sees to it that she offers a new skill every summer because her devoted young patrons always crave for something new.

                Cheerfully, she said that parents now are more supportive of their kids.

                "Parents are very supportive. They're more interested [to learn origami] than the children. One mother even told me that she likes it because she did not learn it from her college art course."

                It is her treasured friendship with Enilog that moved her. Her goal to keep boredom away in her retirement years and her desire to help children through an apostolic work are her other key motivators.

Inspired storyteller

                For many Thomasians, Esterlina Silva's name would always ring a bell. Two years after she retired, the children's "eagerness and thirst for knowledge" inspired her.

Ms. Esterlina Silva, storyteller, retired English teacher

                "Literature embodies our history, culture, emotions and outlook in life. We can enrich [the knowledge] of our children through storytelling," she said.

                Now she celebrates the positive response of participants and considers it "very encouraging."

                "There is fulfillment to see children learn something from you," she told with glee.

Councilor's wife

                Among all the spouses of city councilors, only one took an interest in favor of the library. Ma. Consuelo Janice R. Carmona, wife of Sangguniang Panlungsod member Criston Carmona, found herself telling stories to kids because she believes it is part of her role as a mother.

                "As a mother, I have this care for children, to share and help them," Carmona, who is a mother of three, said.

Mrs. Ma. Consuelo Janice Carmona, full-time mother, storyteller

                Even as a registered nurse and marketing graduate, she believes in the importance of reading as a source of knowledge for children and adults alike.

                She used to sell children's books but was forced to close shop because "no one buys books in San Carlos."

                Being a very involved mother to her three sons' education, she now laments that "In the regular school, there's no reading comprehension [program anymore]. Comprehension is important. We encourage this in the library."

                The councilor's wife of 18 years is still very positive about the library's program for kids and shares that she often tells stories on values and focuses on phonics in reading using the colorful picture books she used to sell.

                Since her youngest son is now nine, she has also taken to using his old early childhood books for the morning reading sessions participated by kids in Kinder 2 to Grade 2.

                Carmona emphasized that children in San Carlos need so much exposure to books and she is more than happy to be part of the Friends, an exclusive group of a few who has taken into the advocacy for reading and the value of children's literature.

                These are just four of the 20 Friends of the Library members who believe that children can better spend summer time learning fun, new things than just watching junk on TV and the Internet.

                Luckily, after three years of spending their own resources-time, money, effort-the local government has already noticed them. Dela Rosa said it has now been lobbied that volunteer storytellers and facilitators will receive a casual employee's worth of compensation for their service this summer.

                "This is a miracle. Call it a miracle after three years! They are giving us compensation!" Dela Rosa could not quite believe it but added that with or without it, she and the Friends will continue to work for the kids anyway and to promote literature and the arts in the process.