“The kids were just amazing,” Shannon Taylor, library director, said. “They were in such good spirits through the whole thing. It was impressive to see them carrying all the boxes, working as such a good team.”

Taylor said the football team worked together as an assembly line to transport the books from the storage facility to the vehicles, and as an assembly line from the vehicles to the library.

Jake Burkholder, Southwestern football coach, said the team’s volunteer day with the library was successful.

“It went really well,” he said. “We were able to figure out the best way to move a lot of boxes stuffed full of books. It took a while, but it went fast and the kids were having fun.”

Burkholder said the library had contacted the team previously to see if they would be interested in helping the library retrieve the boxes of books from storage. He said the team is always looking for opportunities to serve and contribute to the community.

“That’s a small piece for us to pay back and spend a couple hours to help out,” he said, “just being able to give back to the community that comes to our games and supports us.”

Burholder said the volunteer experience helped each of the students learn the value of teamwork, as it forced the team to work together to accomplish the daunting task.

The team from Southwestern hopes their volunteer work will make the library’s reopening efforts a little easier.

“Hopefully it helps to get them back up and rolling quickly,” Burkholder said.

Lakewood Memorial Library has been closed since several leaks in the building’s roof were discovered in February. After months of reconstruction efforts, the library is planning on reopening Sept. 8.

While Taylor explained the library intends to have a special reopening ceremony at some point, she said the priority is reopening as soon as possible for the community.

The next step for the library will be organizing the boxes full of books.

“It is a lot of boxes,” she said. “It’s all throughout the library right now. Probably upwards of 700 boxes of books they brought in here.”

Taylor also said the final stages of the library’s repair work are underway but will be completed in time for the public to return to the library Sept. 8. All of the library’s services and operations will resume the same day, according to Taylor.

“Everything will start back the same day,” she said. “I know everyone’s been so excited to have us back reopened. The thing that we are most excited about is being able to finally be back open again and welcome everyone back in here.”

Taylor said the library has been able to utilize grant opportunities to expand its services in preparation for its reopening. One of the new opportunities will be art work shops provided at the library.

In addition to new programs at the library, Taylor said people can expect the layout of the library to be entirely changed.

“We’ve had to make some changes for removing the duct work.” she said. “It freed up some space to rearrange. It will be a much more welcoming and inviting space.”