Among the best resources at Cluster Tutoring are the libraries, which offer students a wide variety of books, flash cards, references, supplies, games, and other learning materials. And on Tuesdays, Sylvia Menninga has been the go-to librarian for at least 10 years.
When Sylvia first came to Cluster, she was a tutor. When her student didn’t return one year, the former director, Kathy McCabe, asked her if she would become the librarian, and she readily accepted.
At that point, “the library was pretty much of a mess,” Sylvia said. “I did a lot of organizing and throwing things out.” One summer, the library was moved to a different location, and Sylvia’s husband, Gy Menninga, volunteered by building and putting up shelves. “There was a lot more space for books after that,” Sylvia added.
Now Sylvia comes every Tuesday night. “It’s been a very fun job for me, helping kids and tutors find books, games, and resources,” she said.
At the end of the school year last May, several tutors asked for more books with African-American characters for both the Tuesday and Thursday night libraries. With a generous donation from another long-time tutor, Ruth Foley, Cluster has been able to add between 50 and 60 new books to each of the libraries. We owe a big thank-you to Ruth!
“There’s a whole new section of African-American books,” Sylvia said. “We had a pretty good collection of books already, but now we made a special section. There are biographies and stories — all different ways of presenting African-American history and stories.” The books are for a range of ages, from elementary through high school.
One book Sylvia especially liked was We are the Ship, the story of Negro League baseball. Besides writing the book, author Kadir Nelson painted the many illustrations of old baseball heroes.
A year ago, the former Thursday Cluster librarian, Connie Henderson-Damon, reorganized that library. Girl Scout Lucy Martin cataloged all of the books online at Collectorz.com as her Girl Scout Gold Award project. To access the list, click here. You can search for a specific title, author, or subject in the search field. The full url is http://cloud.collectorz.com/clustertutoringfirstunited/books and can be bookmarked on your own laptop or tablet if you and you student are looking for a particular book.
The Thursday library now has two librarians. One is Debbie Morris, a friend of Sylvia’s. Debbie said she was interested in tutoring, and Sylvia must have given her a very positive review of the job of a tutoring librarian, because Debbie now helps Thursday students the same way Sylvia does on Tuesdays.