Children visiting the Oak Park River Forest Infant Welfare Society’s Children’s Clinic leave with gifts more valuable and long-lasting than the typical stickers or suckers. Each child has the opportunity to take home and keep one to two new or gently used books from the society’s warm and cheery library. And with a recent donation of 500 books from Dominican University’s Rebecca Crown Library, they will have a lot more books to choose from.
“One of the things that those of us who are not trained in any of the medical fields can do to help promote IWS’s mission is to focus on this library,” said Nancy Van Der Griend, chair of IWS’s volunteer-led Giving Library Committee. “Connecting children with books and developing a love of reading is one of the ways we can help kids thrive, complete school and have the kinds of life we hope they will have.”
“It’s not often that children look forward to going to the doctor or dentist but our library, which is bright and colorful and doesn’t feel clinical, adds value and helps create a positive experience for kids,” said Rowena Abrahams, IWS director of marketing.
The IWS has been providing comprehensive medical, dental, behavioral health and social services to low-income children from Chicago’s west side and several communities surrounding Oak Park and River Forest for more than 100 years. The nonprofit organization serves more than 3,500 children from birth to 21 years old, as well as their families each year. Its library, which occupies a prominent space adjacent to its waiting room, gives out approximately 15,000 children’s and young adult books every year. The library also contains a parents’ resource section with books on healthy parenting.
The IWS depends primarily on individual donations to replenish its library collection, including neighborhood book drives, church youth groups, and collections from children’s birthdays and special occasions. Recently, it received a donation of 10 boxes of books from a woman who was celebrating her 50th birthday by doing 50 generous things. The library also receives book donations from Bernie’s Book Bank and Our Future Reads, Chicago organizations dedicated to providing free books to nonprofits. Last year, it was awarded a grant providing funds to buy 2,700 books through the online First Book Marketplace and Oak Park’s Book Table.
Dominican University’s Rebecca Crown Library last month donated 15 boxes of books from its children’s and young adult collections to make room for new titles. The books were no longer needed for the School of Library and Information Studies’ curricula.
“We were looking for a place that would use and appreciate the books. IWS, with its focus on serving children and youth, was the perfect recipient of the books,” said Mary Pat Fallon, interim director of the Rebecca Crown Library.
The IWS’s Giving Library Committee, which includes a retired elementary school teacher and a retired college professor of reading, researches recommended book lists from educational associations and uses The Book Table as a resource for book purchases. According to Van Der Griend, graphic novels, Spanish language and bilingual books, and books with diverse themes and written by diverse authors are particularly desired. And the Harry Potter books are still in great demand by their patients and families. The committee also provides bags of holiday-themed books for families to take home.
In the future, the committee would like to offer more literacy programs in IWS’ waiting room, which, after all, has a captive audience. Members are looking into the possibility of offering recorded readings on the television, with copies of books that children can take home to read if they are pulled into a doctor’s appointment before the book ends. These recorded readings would also serve as good role modeling for parents about the importance of reading to their children.
To donate new or gently used books for the Infant Welfare Society’s library, contact info@oprfiws.org.