PASCO, Wash. – Before the end of last school year, some of the shelves in Pasco High School’s library had been emptied to make room for something new. Now they’re filled with a variety of things meant to spark interests and hobbies in students according to Librarian Elizabeth LeCompte.
“This gives kids a chance to explore hobbies that maybe they’re interested in or they’ve seen someone else do but they can’t afford,” LeCompte said. “Do you want to buy snowshoes if it turns out after one time you hate that activity?”
The shelves have multiple categories including music, sports, outdoor gear, games, science and crafts.
“Not a lot of people could buy instruments and being able to check them out is really cool because they can just borrow it and take it back if they don’t feel it,” Freshman Kyara Rodriguez said.
LeCompte said everything on the shelves was purchased new this year with funding from the library and a $2,500 grant from Amazon.
She said while she doesn’t expect it all to stay in perfect condition it will be a learning experience for what works and what doesn’t.
“Almost everything is also paired with a book that goes with it, either just a book about the topic or a here’s how to use a telescope,” she said.
The library has only been open for checkout for a few days, but students said they were excited to check out things like the telescope and baking implements.
“It’s cool, they didn’t have any of this stuff at my old school so it’s cool that everyone has an opportunity to do stuff like that,” Freshman Darling Veliz said.
