Community comes together for library

How do you build a library in the middle of the woods?

Pretty Lake Vacation Camp did it with a lot of friends, a lot of donations, and a lot of coincidence.

First, there was Pretty Lake Vacation Camp. The 93-year-old nonprofit free summer camp for area children dreamed of someday having a library for campers to use, said Sue Jones, the camp’s development director.

The camp started a small library during the summer of 2008, but quickly realized it needed a bigger one.

Then there were the “Birthday Girls,” a group of eight, longtime friends in Kalamazoo.

When Sara Jane Bald, known as Missy to many and a member of the “Birthday Girls,” died last October, the women in the group wanted to do something to honor their friend, said Nan Harrison, a friend of Bald. They called Pretty Lake, an organization Bald had been involved with for a long time, and asked to help.

Then Willie Vorbrich called the camp. The junior at Kalamazoo Central High School and the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center was looking for an Eagle Scout project. Jones asked if he could transform a picnic pavilion over looking Pretty Lake into a three-season library.

And finally, the Pretty Lake Library. The library opened during the summer, Jones said, and was an instant hit with Pretty Lake’s campers.

“The kids, they treated it as a true library that just happened to be in the middle of a camp,” Jones said. “It was really neat to see that.”

The new library at Pretty Lake Vacation Camp encourages campers to take what’s inside — books — into what’s outside — nature.

Vorbrich and Pretty Lake designed the converted picnic pavilion with lots of windows so that campers felt outside even when they were inside.

The library started out as a slab of concrete, some posts and a roof. Two picnic tables sat underneath. Jones said it was rarely used.

When Vorbrich, 16, first called Pretty Lake, an organization he had worked with before, he did not expect to build a library. He had never put up a building before, but he enlisted enough help to make it happen.

It took 430 hours of work, he said, and many volunteers from the community.

“I was hoping to do something that would have a lasting impact on people,” Vorbrich said. “I feel very proud. It was a marvelous way to give back to the community and to bring a lot of people together.”

Web site: prettylakecamp.org

Read the full story: Community comes together for library at Pretty Lake Vacation Camp | Kalamazoo News – - MLive.com. By Aaron Aupperlee | Kalamazoo Gazette