Warriors in the Community is part of Stenhousemuir Football Club’s efforts to get more kids involved in football. As the Coronavirus crisis has continued, the Club has developed this into a community help initiative for vulnerable local people, attracting volunteers from around the Stenhousemuir and Larbert area.
It began with running errands and helping people with essential services. It has since grown into food parcel delivery, a blether scheme, garden plant distribution and, now, a community library.
Lisa Duncan, library assistant at Larbert Library, is a Stenhousemuir local. She phoned The Warriors to add her name to their growing list of volunteers: “I mentioned that I usually work for Larbert Library, which is closed at present. Rae (from Stenhousemuir Warriors) said people who had called the care line said they missed the library service very much”.
Lisa offered to get a library service going and, following a call with David Reid, the Vice Chair of Stenhousemuir Football club, she was given the locker room as a makeshift library and has never looked back!
Withdrawn Larbert Library stock was added to Lisa’s library and, following a few social media posts, and mentions on Central FM, book donations from the public have flooded in.
Lisa has been able to use her library training to create a system for managing the service. She even has a database of items on the laptop she has borrowed from work and has had had some help from a regular Larbert Library user.
A huge amount of effort has gone into setting up the library, but her customer’s health is always at the forefront of Lisa’s mind: “I’ve created a storage area for donations to be kept for 72 hours prior to use to ensure all lendable items are safe for people.”
Lisa has been hand- delivering to homes nearby herself, but now also has the services of a driver to reach people who are a little further away.
“I currently have 49 customers and look forward to new referrals every day. It has – and continues to be – a lot of work, but it’s very worthwhile to ease the hardship and loneliness people are going through,” says Lisa.
“Hopefully the service brings a smile to my customers’ faces, a time of relaxation and the ability to travel to another destination through a well written story”.
More about the library
The library has a stock of audiobooks and children’s and adult items.
The library have very kindly been inundated with donations and can’t accept any more items for now.
If you’d like to use the library, get in touch with Stenhousemuir Warriors on 01324 466563, Monday – Friday, 10am-4pm and Lisa will get back to you. For safety reasons, you cannot visit the library in person.
Follow Stenhousemuir Warriors on Twitter and Facebook.