Victoria “Tori” Dennis has been the Program Director and Social Media Coordinator at the Lamb County Library since September, but has worked at the library for much longer than that.
Dennis said she started volunteering at the library in January and get her full-time job in May, after Candy Seth retired.
“I was the assistant librarian from May to the end of July and I decided I wanted to be a stay-athome mom and so I quit,” she said. “I volunteered...to pop-in, do some things and post on Facebook and...then in September, Selena told me that the Judge wanted to hire me back on as part-time. I could create my own hours...work from home and get paid for the programs that I was implementing.”
Dennis said her job consists of organizing the Baby Story Time and Toddler Time programs and she does all of the graphic design for the library.
“I’m in charge of my programs that I’ve started, so both story times, and with those I do all of the social media. I do all of the graphic design that comes with those and I also do all of the graphic design for all of the programs in the library,” she said.
Dennis said she graduated high school early and is the youngest graduate of South Plains College, at just 15-years-old.
“I’m a senior in college,” she said. “I am going back in January, but I double majored in two-dimensional art and theology. So I’m going back to finish my theology degree and I minored in art, but I took graphic design classes and stuff like that.”
Along with Baby Story Time and Toddler Time, Dennis said she also started some seasonal projects for the kids.
“In the summer, I also did Creative Sprouts, which was so much fun,” she said. “I implemented gardening and art and I taught kids how to garden. They planted all these flowers you see out here. They learned about different parts of a plant, how to keep a plant alive and it was awesome. I’ll do it again next year, it was awesome.”” Dennis said she has always been drawn to helping and working with kids.
“I always find myself working with kids because I just love it so much. I was a sub for a little bit. I did teach art classes for a homeschool group and I always find myself just drawn back to that. So, summer reading programs that I absolutely love to do and children’s programs are what I thrive at,” she said.
Dennis said she gets kids excited about reading through the recommendation of Reading Inter-ventionist Specialist, Kelly DeLoach, by letting kids read aloud through different incentives.
“[DeLoach] recommended that we let kids read out loud. So we were like ‘OK well that’s a little nerve-wracking.’ We printed off tshirts and each kid that read aloud to us at summer reading program got a t-shirt and that was so great. I think one of the most important things is to make them feel like they’re great readers...The point is to make them feel valued and that’s kind of the point of the prizes, it makes them feel like they did a good job,” she said.
Dennis said the library can also order special books for kids with learning disabilities.
“We have this thing called Bob Books, it’s basically a...series of books and it gets harder and harder. They teach you how to sound out each word. Anyone who has a preschooler or a kindergartner those are perfect, but also, if you have a learning disability, they break down each single step of reading...Also, there are books that have a certain font, called the Dyslexia Font...I don’t know how it works, but it does and we can order those for free,” she said.
Dyslexia is a broad term for disorders that make it difficult to learn to read or comprehend words, letters and numbers, but it does not affect intelligence.
According to the Dyslexie Front website, Christian Boer created the Dyslexie Font, which makes the bottom of letters thicker or “heavier” to keep the letters from flipping upside down. Although there is no cure for dyslexia, there are many fonts, such as Comic Sans, Arial, Dyslexie and OpenDyslexic, that have been proven to help kids with dyslexia.
Dennis said Bob Books and books with the Dyslexie Font are her recommendations to parents.
“That’s just kind of my recommendation because I’m kind of obsessed with teaching kids how to read,” Dennis said. “My goal is to have my baby reading by two. I read to her every single day. I think it is so important, because not only is it reading,...but it’s also speaking and teaching her how to say stuff in the correct way and I just love that. I’ve recommended the Bob Books to a lot of people.”
Dennis said she also loves working with older women.
“One of my favorite parts is working with the older women. They have my whole heart,” she said. “I just feel like that older women might not be understood and they might be a little bit lonely and so they come in here and it’s...their opportunity to socialize and feel like somebody understands them.” Dennis said one of the books that has always stuck with her is “The Traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews.
“It’s so good and it has always just stuck with me because it’s like the past always repeats itself and I love that, but he’s not my favorite author. Actually, my favorite author is Nicholas Sparks. I’m a huge Nicholas Sparks fan and I have almost read every single one of his books, but they’re not like books that stick with me for the rest of my life,” she said.
Dennis said reading is important because it can change the world.
“If you don’t know how to read, you can’t read a newspaper,” she said with a laugh. “If you don’t know how to read, you’re missing out on so much goodness...One of the things that I tell kids that are learning how to read...is that it gets you away from reality. A book a day keeps reality away. That’s what my book bag says and I love that, because when we are immersed in literature, in fantasy, in self-help books, we are learning what we love and what we want to be in all the time.”
Dennis said the library is getting ready for the Christmas Open House and she in charge of pointing people in the right direction.
“If you want to be a vendor for the parade, then you contact me at VictoriaDennis831@gmail.com. Also, we are having our Christmas Open House on December 6th [from] 6 to 8 p.m. and this is where we’ll showcase all of the programs. We’ll have pictures up of what we do, what we want to do next year that we might need funding for...and we’ll have hot chocolate. There’s a gingerbread house competition, anyone can join, even adults, even kids,” she said.
Dennis encourages everyone to check out the Lamb County Library Facebook Page at LambCo.Library to see the different programs, her graphic designs and any event the library is hosting.