FOL Week Friends Volunteer Story: Deanne York

This week (Oct. 15-21) is National Friends of The Libraries Week! To celebrate the efforts of our Friends at the Metro, we will share the stories of some of our Friends volunteers and what the experience means to them.

Be sure to check out the Friends Membership Drive thermometer to track how many new Friends we have signed up since the start of the campaign!

FOL Week

Friends Volunteer Story: Deanne York 

Library members come to the library for a variety of resources and reasons, but one Oklahoma City mom comes to the library to make memories with her kids, teach them skills to succeed, and leave a legacy of volunteerism.

Deanne York spends most days at the library with her kids - they attend morning library programs together rain or shine. 

“We would go down early in the morning and we never missed one. Even when it was cold. We would go to a program, go to lunch, and go back to look for books,” Deanne York said.

To give back to the library system where she and her kids made daily memories, she started volunteering with the Friends of the Library.

Now that they are both in school, York says she takes her kids to school and heads to the Friends of the Library sort site where the volunteers sort books for their annual book sale.

“I am amazed by how this little group of people can crank out that book sale. It's amazing that this tiny operation runs that,” York said.

York says her kid’s bookshelf at home is “gigantic” so she tries to donate their old books to the book sale.

“I have a five-year-old who is a budding reader and a 10-year-old who is dyslexic and so we run the gamut of abilities to read. It's really nice for me to see when someone finds a book that they love, that really engages them,” York said.

She says that doing some service is important to her, and she hopes that one day her children will volunteer with the Friends.