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Messenger photo by Kristy Zurbrick
Mary Ann Storck covers a new book set to become part of the circulation at Hurt-Battelle Memorial Library in West Jefferson. |
“If it’s something your interested in and you have the time, ask.”
These are Mary Ann Storck’s words of advice to anyone who wants to take a crack at being a volunteer.
Storck practices what she preaches. When she was a young girl, she thought she wanted to become a nurse, so she volunteered at a hospital as a candystriper. While such work is good for some, she figured out quickly it didn’t suit her. In this case, volunteering informed her career path.
Two years ago, during a visit to Hurt-Battelle Memorial Library in West Jefferson, Storck noticed that the work room was piled with books in need of processing for inclusion in the library’s collection.
“I asked if they needed help, and I got the job,” said Storck, who has been volunteering at the library ever since.
In this case, volunteering serves two purposes for Storck, a widow who lives in West Jefferson. It gets her out of the house, she said, and back into the type of work she did and loved before retirement.
“I worked here at the West Jefferson library from 1987 to 1996,” she said. “I worked the desk, cataloguing, shelf reading, a little bit of everything. I was a jack of all trades.”
Her prior experience made for a perfect fit. Whenever books accum-ulate in the library work room, Marie Fogle, Hurt-Battelle’s cataloguing assistant, gives Storck a call.
“Mary Ann helps me get the books out into circulation faster,” Fogle said, “which also frees me up to get other things done around the library.”
Storck’s main job as a volunteer is to label and cover the new and donated books that come into the library. She also keeps the youth library card application files up to date and organized.
“I have fibromyalgia, so this is the kind of work I can do in my own time and in my own way. If I get tired, I can sit down,” she said.
The flexible hours and the atmos-phere keep Storck coming back.
While her candystriping days didn’t lead to her chosen profession, her chosen profession did lead to her days as a volunteer. Storck said one never knows what could come of a stint as a volunteer.
“You might get into something that changes your life. Try it. You never know!” she said.
For more information on volunteer oppor-tunities at Hurt-Battelle Memorial Library in West Jefferson, call Director Cathy Allen at 614-879-8448. The library is located at 270 Lilly Chapel Rd.
