Shenda Smith Collection ~ honors her work and memory

Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer

Shenda Smith was a passionate person. She loved the environment and the arts. Her degree was in environmental science, and she worked with students in the schools and at the Pocahontas County Opera House in theater and music.

After Smith unexpectedly passed away last year, her family, friends and community were devastated. 

One family friend was so moved by the passion Smith had, that she decided something must be done. “That something” turned into a collection of books and materials to be loaned out from the public libraries.

Glenda VanReenan, of Marlinton, knew Smith when she was a child and again as an adult when she returned to Marlinton. Smith asked VanReenan to join the Opera House Board, where the two worked together to bring enriching programs to the stage for youth and adults to enjoy.

VanReenan decided to approach the library with an idea for the collection and for the past year, has worked with Smith’s parents, Jim and Diane, McClintic Library librarian Pam Hoover and libraries director of operations Hallie Herold to gather the collection.

“I came up with the idea about the books that were a reflection of Shenda’s interests because her degree was in environmental studies, but she loved music, she loved dance and she loved theater,” VanReenan said. “So, for me, she was a Renaissance person because she combined the sciences and the arts.”

The group gathered some private donations and a large donation from the Marlinton Lions Club to purchase items for the collection and had a fun time finding unique pieces that reminded them of Smith.

“I would bring my list and compare it to Pam’s and then we decided on what we wanted to order,” VanReenan said. “I think Shenda would approve because we had a lot of fun doing that, we laughed a great deal.”

The group enlisted the help of Margaret Worth to find materials that were related to the environmental sciences, and she chose several magazines that the library has subscribed to for the collection.

The collection also contains a variety of books about music and theater, as well as interactive items such as musical instruments and puppets.

“The libraries are honored to hold the collection, and I think Shenda would approve because I think that it is one of the best avenues to reach the most people,” Herold said. “Here, they can really be shared. The limit is endless.”

Herold worked with Smith on a water monitoring project a few years ago, as well as when Smith was a substitute teacher at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School. She remembered one specific act that best summed up Smith’s passion to expose her students to learning.

“She contacted me, and she told me that she had a student who had mentioned the library several times,” Herold recalled. “She wanted to go to the library; had never been to the library. So Shenda reached out to see if she could set up a special visit.

“When she was available to come was before the library was open, but we said, ‘okay, we’ll do it; we’ll make it special,’” she continued. “I think Shenda picked up some baked goods and we made tea. She brought the student over and just really wanted to provide that opportunity for the student.

“I think she wanted to make connections for young people to spark interest and find their passion,” Herold added. “She went above and beyond. She really made an impact.”

The Shenda Smith Collection will be housed at McClintic Library but will be available to be loaned out to all the county libraries and to the elementary and middle schools by request from the teachers.

“We’re putting together a post that explains the collection and lists all the material to put at our other branches, so people can see it is available here and to contact their librarian with a request,” Herold said.

The posters and stickers that are in all the books were designed by Smith’s brother, Jonathan, who wanted to help with the project. The collection is accompanied by one of his designs – a poster explaining the collection and who Shenda was.

To check out items in the collection, Herold said it takes a library card and an adult, for safety reasons.

Not only is the collection special because it honors the memory of a wonderful community member, but it also has special items that can’t be found in any other West Virginia libraries.

When it came time to catalog the books, several of them were not in the West Virginia library system at all, so Hoover and Herold had to find catalog numbers for the books elsewhere and create a West Virginia code for them.
“It’s really exciting when you think about the fact that we have some books at this library that nobody else in the state has,” Herold said.

VanReenan said she is really pleased with the collection, especially the puppets which have already been a big hit with the Budding Bookworms playgroup at McClintic.

The library happens to be home to a puppet theater that works perfectly with the puppets and has the added bonus of giving kids an opportunity to experience the collection without leaving the library.

The puppet theater was purchased several years ago with a special donation made by a then preschool aged Noah Clifton, of Marlinton.

“When I was an AmeriCorps, I had a playgroup here,” Herold said. “[Mitchell Chevrolet] did their jack-o-lantern carving contest and one of the little boys, Noah Clifton, who was in the playgroup, won for his pumpkin entry. The prize is a donation to your school.

“The next time his mom came in, she said Noah won the contest and when they said the prize was a donation for his school, he said, ‘the library is my school,’” she continued. “He wanted to make the donation to the library. We picked out the puppet theater and some little finger puppets for it.”

Although it’s not part of the Shenda Smith Collection, the theater is set up near it to give youngsters the option to play theater with the puppets instead of taking them home.

It may have taken a year to collect, but working on the project was therapeutic for the group. It gave them a chance to share their memories of Smith and find inspiration to pass her passion on to others.