For many booklovers in town, the Friends of the Library has been the only place where they can browse, walk around and buy books for the past several years due to the dearth of bookstores in Brownsville.
However, the little used bookstores inside both the Southmost and Central libraries, have been closed for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With most of the volunteers being retirees, who are the most susceptible to the virus, the Friends of the Library is looking for ways to bring in more volunteers and reopen safely this summer.
“We are looking for new blood, we are looking for new volunteers. You’ll have like a two to three-hour shift and we are open from 10 until closing time,” Calvin Walker, local architect and president of Friends of the Library, said.
“We probably have 10 to 15 volunteers that we can depend on and we know the college students are restricted to their time. But we are always looking for volunteers. To me, it is a way of giving back and it’s pretty simple. You come, you sit here, you take money, add out how much it is.”
Friends of the Library funds the children’s program at both libraries and is completely run on a volunteer basis. This year, they gave the library $8,000 for the summer reading program and are hopeful they will be able to continue funding programs so that children get access to the education they need outside of school.
“That’s the whole purpose of the Friends, to fund projects that are related to children’s activities,” Walker said.
“We’ve been very blessed with having a lot of members volunteer and obviously, a lot of them are retired and that’s one of the reasons why I haven’t opened it back up. I’ve been concerned with COVID and I can’t afford to have volunteers get sick by having somebody come in that’s carrying the COVID. I’m hopeful that we will be able to open it up maybe in August.”
Walker said Friends of the Library not only provides a way to give back to the community but also it is an opportunity for the citizens of Brownsville to walk around the bookstore and browse for reading material at a discounted price.
“It’s an opportunity for the citizens in Brownsville to come over here and pick up a National Geographic magazine for a quarter, you can buy a whole set of encyclopedias for $10, you buy the latest books: hardback, non-fiction, fiction for $1 and they would cost $27 at Barnes and Noble,” he said.
“It’s an opportunity for you to come in and browse. There’s people who have come here and say: ‘I didn’t even know this place existed’ and wind up buying 10 books or more.”
To volunteer, you have to be 18 years of age or older. Friends of the library will work with your work or school schedule and you can volunteer as many hours as you want.
To volunteer, contact Walker at (956) 592-4999.
“We are open to volunteers, we would love to have a problem where we have to turn people away and say: ‘we’ll put you on a list and get in touch with you when somebody leaves the program.’ I would love to have more volunteers,” he said.
