As children gather around the plush chairs on the second story of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, Tori Hopper sits down to read “The Wide-Mouthed Frog” for their monthly sensory story time.
With sharp attention and focus from the kids who watch as the frog leaps off the page in front of their eyes, Hopper actively curates a world that is a soothing place for children on the autistic spectrum.
“Our sensory storytime brings the kids into the story and engages them more than a normal story hour does,” she said. “When we do our sensory storytimes, the kids are very engaged. Obviously the responses are going to be varied, but even if they are not making eye contact or doing all of the social convention things that society expects, they really love it.”
Hopper has been the children’s and teen services coordinator at the library since June of 2019. She dedicates a large amount of her time to the Autism Resource Center. The center was started in 2012 through a library services and technology act grant by a professor at Mississippi State University.
“Mississippi State had a large hand in curating the collection, providing insight and information about what to purchase about future development and things like that,” Hopper said.
The program is funded by the Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) Grant, Friends of the Library and The Mother Goose Endowment.
The center currently holds a variety of educational books, games, storytime sessions, resistance bands and more that provide comfort and entertainment to autistic children visiting the library. A yellow cabinet sits in the corner of the second story filled with games, books and sensory activities for the convenience of the kids.
They have pop-up books, felt boards, educational books for teens and adults on the spectrum and fictional books for the kids in the Autism Resource Center display.
According to Hopper, 70 percent of the children who visit the library engage in the autism program.
The center’s impact goes beyond the Golden Triangle.
“We are one of the few libraries with an autism center in the state. We have a lot of libraries come and look at our collection and look at our resources for ideas of what to do. We connect with a lot of the autism services and clinics in the area as well,” Hopper said. “I think the impact is really what people make of it. It is profound in the sense that for those who find and use it, they find great comfort and feel seen.”
Besides aiding children, the center provides resources to teens and adults on the spectrum and anxious parents.
“We help a lot of parents who are questioning whether their child is on the spectrum or even are just scared. It really is a jewel to the people who find it and use it,” Hopper said.
Recently the Columbus Kiwanis Club, under the guidance of club president Steven Lavender, raised and donated $5,621.44 specifically for the Autism Resource Center.
A few months ago, Hopper was invited to one of the club’s weekly meetings where she presented a formal pitch to the board asking for help. With a unanimous vote, the club decided to extend their helping hand to the resource center.
“We felt like we wanted to enhance their resource center. They are in need of a few things. They were in need of some new educational materials and some things that had become outdated. We felt like we could really help them,” Lavender said.
Lavender printed flyers, wrote letters and went door to door to all the businesses in town selling $250 sponsorships to raise money for the library. Out of the businesses he visited, the club received donations from 26 businesses around the Lowndes County area.
“I probably went to 25 businesses and probably retained 10. Everyone in the club has the responsibility to go out and help,” Lavender said.
Along with money raised from selling sponsorships, the club organized its first ever 5K (3.1 miles) charity run to raise money for the library’s resource center. The Memorial Weekend 5K was held May 28 in downtown Columbus at a $20 per person registration fee. About 65 to 70 community members registered and came out to run for kids on the autism spectrum.
With the money raised from the Kiwanis Club, Hopper intends to purchase more books, a steam roller for the kids (a toy used for sensory stimulation), puzzles, a mobile cart to transport the items and more.
The educational toys and books purchased with the donated funds will help aid in the visual learning and engagement of children who use the resource center. The mobile cart will give the library the opportunity to extend the center’s impact beyond the library. Hopper hopes to visit local schools as early as September to help more children in the Columbus area.
“My goal is to provide resources for people that are asking questions and then people on the spectrum themselves,” she said.
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