A rainy day field trip sparks the opening of a new library in Community Action Partnership’s Head Start Center located at 812 Sacramento, in St. Joseph.

Head Start and Early Head Start programs serve around 375 children from birth to age five in Andrew, Buchanan, Clinton, and DeKalb counties. Almost 300 of those children are served in St. Joseph.

Head Start Director, Whitney Lanning said it all started last year on  a day when children at the South 9th St. Head Start location were stuck inside because of a storm.

“They went on a field trip throughout the center,” said Lanning. “During their adventure they found a box of books which sparked conversation between them and their teachers about what you do with books, how you use them, and where they belong.”

The children learned that books belonged in a library, so the teachers made a makeshift library in a small space in the hallway of the center.

“The space included a bench, a bookshelf of used books and a small rug,” Lanning said.

But the students and teachers quickly grew out of the small space as classes began to meet and read as a group and children would stop to have their parents read to them.

“We soon realized they needed a larger space,” said Lanning. “We asked the children to start the planning process which lead to them drawing pictures and writing stories of what they wanted the library to look like.”

The agency then began to work clearing out an unused room to renovate for the construction of a library.

The Library officially opened last week at the Head Start on South 9th street.

“We are excited to have been able to give our children a space that they designed and that they and their families can enjoy,” said Lanning. “We hope that it will be a space that promotes our mission of early learning, school readiness and support our children and their families or years to come.”