Service Clubs:

Sometimes I wonder what role the Glendale Public Library plays in today’s environment of information that just keeps coming to us on the Internet. Do we still read books?

The Jewel City Kiwanis Club has had a tradition of giving a children’s book to the library almost every week in the name of their guest speaker. To say thank you for all the books given over the years, Cecile Pham, the library assistant in charge of the Children’s Room, spoke at the club’s meeting recently.

Pham had been a schoolteacher for more than 10 years before coming to work at the library seven years ago. Her dedication to helping children learn in a very supportive environment at the library was very evident in her speech.

She brought 10 very used books that had been given to the Children’s Room brand new years ago by the Kiwanis to show that their gifts are really used and appreciated by the children. The library keeps a count of how many times a book is checked out, and the books in the Children’s Room are read more than 100 times. Seeing how valuable their donation of books has been, the club decided to continue their children’s book gift-giving program.

Pham gave a review of the other activities that the library provides in the Children’s Room. The library built a computer area that is used largely by older students to study, do homework and write papers. Many school-required book reports are written in the room. The library has built a children’s foreign language section stocked with books in Armenian, Korean and other Asian languages, Russian, and Spanish. They have a book club for children ages 4 to 8 that meets six times a week and stories are read to the children. There is also a book reading in Spanish once a week and in Armenian and Persian once a month.

Jewel City Kiwanis Club meets at 6 p.m. every Tuesday at Clancy’s Seafood Broiler, 219 N. Central Ave., Glendale. For more information, call Rich Jessup at (818) 370-6930.

Survivor kits sold at Downtown Dash