Buena Library’s a lot more

BUENA -- Brandon Guerrero sits at the head of a long table at the rear of a double-wide trailer that's home to the Buena Library and flips through a book.

"Six bowls of mush, nine balloons, 100 stars," the 6-year-old reads from the bilingual book that teaches counting. Murmurs from the other kids spills across the table as he reads.

He's just one of more than a dozen kids that cram into the small room at the library three days a week to take part in an after-school program that focuses on reading and math.

Teens and parents often drop into the library as well to read, check out books or use one of the four computers. Some children come just to have a place to go until their parents return from working in warehouses.

But it's hard to serve the community in the relatively small space of the 1,475-foot trailer, said Virginia Obert, member of a community group that's trying to give the library a new home.

The group -- Friends of the Buena Library -- is preparing to launch a fund-raising campaign to finance a new 3,990-square-foot building to house the library and after-school program. Cost of a new building is estimated at anywhere from $500,000 to $800,000.

"There's a huge need here and we're serving the community in a way that has a huge impact in terms of improvement," Obert said. "We have kids coming into the program with certificates showing they passed the WASL and parents seeing it's a great place for kids to be."

Board games, poster paint, and blocks with words on them fill the shelves of one wall of tutoring program's small room.

"What we're trying to do at the library is (share) the joy and fun of reading," said tutor Nan Ide. "The second graders (here) all read in English and Spanish."

For most kids, it's the only place to go after school in this small rural community that's north of the Yakima River and cut by Yakima Valley Highway.

"Sometimes kids just come here for respite -- just for quite," said librarian Kathy Garcia.

A small convenience store, a post office, church and a farm worker housing project anchor this isolated community of roughly 1,000 mostly Spanish speaking residents.

Kids here are bused across the river to Toppenish schools and many don't participate in after-school programs there because of a lack of transportation.

The new structure to be built on the same property the trailer now sits will serve as more than just a library, Garcia said.

A survey recently conducted by library supporters showed that parents are interested English and computer classes, and health and day care services.

The Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic said it would provide a mobile clinic at the library once the new building is constructed.

Getting a new building for the library would be a dream come true for the group that has extended a nearly century-old effort to keep the library alive.

"We've been working on this for six years," she said.

Mathea Hanson started the library, then called the Buena Book Nook, during World War I. She operated it from the rear of her store, the Buena Mercantile, before it burned down in 1958.

Then the library, which became part of the Yakima Valley Regional Library in 1946, was moved into the back of the Buena Methodist Church.

Hansons's granddaughter, Karla Marshal, took over the operation in 1991 and in 1993 moved it into a house she owned after the church was sold.

In 2001, she moved it to its present location before dying a year later.

Since that time, Friends of the Buena Library has been raising money to keep it going. The group has raised $10,000 from barn dances, received a $50,000 grant from the state to buy the one-acre piece of land the trailer sits on.

This month the group plans to send out brochures and letters to the surrounding communities seeking donation.

It's also applying for various community development grants in hopes of garnering enough funds to erect the new library that will double as a community service center.

"It's more than a library," Obert said. "It really is the community hub within Buena."

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.

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