Come April, 17-year-old Caitlyn Day of New Castle will have accomplished two significant goals in her young life: She will have earned the Gold Award, the highest award given to a Girl Scout, and secondly, Craig County will have a library.
On March 8, Caitlyn and her entire family along with Bob and Cathy Pillow, members of Craig County Friends of the Library, were in Richmond to be recognized.
In a ceremony that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Virginia State Library Development and Networking Division, The State Library’s map changed forever when Caitlyn colored in the white spot indicating Craig as the only county in the state without a library.
At the age of 14, Caitlyn, a Girl Scout for what like most of her life, began looking for a project that would earn her the Gold Award to complete her 12 years as a Scout.
One of her major concerns for Craig County was the absence of a library, in spite of efforts by many in the community that spanned at least 50 years.
Caitlyn, who is home schooled, has to go to Salem or Roanoke 25 miles away in order to have access to a library and “that got old” according to her and her mother, Patricia (Patty) Day, who had to do the driving.
She devoted much of two-and-a-half years of hard work including hauling and storing thousands upon thousands of donated books, endless fund-raising events and pleading her case to both the Craig County Board of Supervisors as well as the New Castle Town Council for a building in which to start the library.
As a result of her efforts, the Board of Supervisors granted the use of the old historic Eans Building at the corner of Rt. 311 and Main Street in downtown New Castle.
Caitlyn found that was only the beginning of her problems and not actually the end. The building was much in need of renovations and there were limited funds in the county budget to get the job accomplished.
The task of getting a library for Craig County became a family project, according to Patty Day, who said they had traveled as far away as Charlottesville to collect books from a regional library there.
“We started out cataloguing over 1,400 books and then we got thousands and could no longer catalogue them,” Patty said.
Caitlyn’s grandmother, Nancy Day, who lives in Northern Virginia even collected books for the project. Although the entire Day family-Courtney, 15; Nahan, 12; Stephanie, 7, and their father, Jay-gave hundreds of volunteer hours in support of the project, it wasn’t a one family show.
Both Caitlyn and Patty were quick to add that they had lots of support from the community when it came to such things as plumbing, heating and air conditioning, and many other projects that needed to be done in order to ready the building for occupation. The Craig County Friends of the Library members worked diligently for the past two years on the effort by holding numerous fund-raisers, attending countless meetings, moving and sorting many boxes of books and working on the building renovations.
“They have supported each other through the frustrations, hurdles and feelings of wanting to give up, and they have celebrated the accomplishments,” said Day. A group of men from the New Castle United Methodist Church lovingly known as the ‘Wrecking Crew’ pitched in and worked many Tuesdays, framing, installing and offering their time, energy and expertise wherever it was needed.
And help also came from as far away as Notre Dame and as close by as Roanoke College. Both groups spent countless hours helping to sort and move tons of books.
One fundraising task was setting up a second-hand store on Main Street to which many people in the county donated more books, clothes, furniture, and other household items. The space was loaned to the group at no charge by the building’s owner with the stipulation that they would be able to use the store until he found a renter. Volunteers kept it open and more often than not members of the Day family were always on hand.
“Our daughter Courtney earned the Girl Scout Silver award for her work in setting the store up,” Patty added. However, the store closed on Tuesday because someone rented the building and things that were not sold were donated to the Rescue Mission in Roanoke who came and picked the stuff up.”
“What a tremendous relief that was,” she said with a sigh and a smile.
Although the library is scheduled to open before the end of April, Caitlyn is glad she will have the summer to enjoy the library before starting college in the fall. “You know, it has been sort of like jumping off of a cliff. You never know what’s there until you land,” she said, referring to all the snags, hard work and personal sacrifice that have gone into this project. “I’ve learned one good lesson though. The next time I think I will look before I leap! “
-Prepared by Shelly Koon
