Volunteering – August 2023

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I have three areas of volunteering going on this summer: Friends of the Library, Master Naturalist chapter, and Butterfly House (that counts as Master Naturalist hours too).

I volunteer once a month to sort used books at my local library that will be sold in the sales that happen once a year at each branch. Setting up or helping during the sale itself is another volunteer opportunity (I prefer the set up!). This month the sale will be at the branch closest to where I live but I have used the sales as an opportunity to explore other the parts of the county that I am not as familiar with. The monthly sorting usually starts out a bit daunting with tables full of books that have been donated. Two people come in each week but there are certainly times that there is more than two people can sort into shelving by subject or box up within the 2-hour shift. I am always relieved when the table is cleared when I leave…and that the area is air conditioned; sorting books is good exercise.

I am the programs chair for my local Missouri Master Naturalist chapter, so I am doing the behind-the-scenes activity to arrange for speakers…and writing announcements to the chapter about what is happening. The speakers count as advanced training so I create an entry in the tool we have for logging our advanced training so that others can simply select it when they attend…minimizing what they must do to get credit for the training.

The Butterfly House has been my most substantial volunteering this summer…both in the house itself talking to visitors as they enjoy the butterflies and moths there and raising Luna moth caterpillars at home that have been taken to the house as big caterpillars and moths recently. The large cecropia caterpillars on display in the butterfly house recently were the 3 that were raised with my luna caterpillars (because they were mixed in when I was given the bin with a lot of newly hatched caterpillars). 

I’ve enjoyed all the volunteer gigs I’ve had this summer…even the ones that were outdoors on very hot days!

Volunteering at the Library

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I helped set up the used book sale at one of our county libraries last Friday. It was different than last year because the room was in use until 5 PM so our set up was delayed until after that. In addition, it was raining all afternoon. I wondered if there were going to be a lot of wet boxes.

I got there about 10 minutes before the allotted time and there were indeed people in the room, so I worked on a jigsaw puzzle that the library had set up near a window while I waited. Other volunteers were arriving too – some with a load of book boxes in their cars (since it was raining – enclosed vehicles were required…the usual pickups could not be used).

After helping stack chairs and move tables to the periphery of the room, I got started on the children’s books like what I did last year. There was a table and a cart. The differences from last year were 1) more helpers and 2) less books (we estimated what we needed for the sale based on what happened last year). I had two helpers that loaded the bottom shelf of the cart, so I didn’t have any backache from this set up! We were done in less than an hour.

Sorting Used Books

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I sorted used books for Friends of the Library at two of our county libraries this month.

The first library was not one I had been in before and the sorting was done in a small windowless room lined with shelves --- table in the middle with bins underneath --- a narrow walk space around the table. The door is left open; otherwise, it would be very claustrophobic. There was one bag of donated books that was in bad shape (water damage, detached covers, a musty smell); most of those went into the recycling bin. The other volunteer and I quickly sorted everything and boxed up over 10 boxes to go into storage for the next book sale. It was a good experience but not the place I want to do book sorting very often.

The second library was one that is close to where I live and one I had worked in before. The room is without windows but is large…plenty of room to move around and the boxes of books are kept in the middle of the room.

There aren’t as many puzzles being donated these days so I didn’t find any while I was sorting to buy from the library for my dad’s assisted living home.