Brownsville Students In Action team begins new project
Eric Morris | Herald-Standard
Brownsville Area High School Students In Action team members (from left) Jayda Jones, Salanieta Waqanivalu, Sainiana Waqanivalu, Jakob Sabatula, Jaden Harvey and Andrew Havens stand in front of the Brownsville Free Public Library.
Eric Morris | Herald-Standard
Brownsville Area High School students (from left) Jayda Jones, Salanieta Waqanivalu, Jakob Sabatula, Jaden Harvey, Andrew Havens and Sainiana Waqanivalu, members of the school’s Student In Action team, are shown outside the Brownsville Free Public Library. Snowden Square Park and the Cast Iron Amphitheater can been seen in the background.
Eric Morris | Herald-Standard
Brownsville Area High School Student In Action members (from left) Andrew Havens, Salanieta Waqanivalu, Jaden Harvey, Jakob Sabatula, Sainiana Waqanivalu and Jayda Jones are shown inside the Brownsville Free Public Library.
Eric Morris | Herald-Standard
Pictured is the interior of the Brownsville Free Public Library. The 91-year-old library is the subject of efforts by the Brownsville Area High School Student In Action team to increase traffic and funding to the struggling institution as the latest endeavor of Operation Falcon Revitalization.
They’re at it again.
Less than a year removed from realizing their goal with the opening of a park and amphitheater in downtown Brownsville, the Students In Action team at Brownsville Area High School has been recognized for the newest endeavor of Operation Falcon Revitalization.
With a six-year undertaking to plan and construct an outdoor stage and green space in the formerly vacant Snowden Square Park in the bag, the six-student SIA team started anew this school year, and in continued efforts to improve the Brownsville community, it didn’t look further than across the street.
The Brownsville Free Public Library was established in 1927. The small, historic building sits just across Charles Street from Snowden Square, where the $300,000-plus Cast Iron Amphitheater facility opened last May.
Once pegged for expansion, the cash-strapped library has suffered recent setbacks and funding challenges to simply keep its programs operational.
“The library currently operates at a $10,000 deficit,” said Emma Beaver, the library’s lone full-time librarian.
“We know everyone is strapped for cash. This is an impoverished municipality and county. We’re struggling to find the funding we need to survive,” Beaver said.
When they learned of the library’s struggles, it became the Brownsville students’ next target.
“There were plans at one point to expand the library, then the plans were tabled because of the deficit. So the kids immediately knew that this is where they wanted to focus their attention,” said Becky Harvey, one of the SIA team’s two new advisers this school year.
The team set a primary goal — a first phase — of increasing traffic to the library among fellow students. Their idea: adding a “teen space.”
“We assessed the needs of the library and figured how to bring more people into it, which was their main need,” said three-year SIA member, senior Jaden Harvey.
Jaden Harvey said there are other libraries around Southwestern Pennsylvania that attract teenagers by providing a “teen space” for them meet, socialize and collaborate.
“We thought it would be something achievable at the library to spark other projects in the library to come,” he said. “More will be built off that one beginning point.”
Members of the team visited other “teen spaces,” such as those found at several Carnegie Library branches in Pittsburgh. The spaces provide resources and services that teenagers may not have access to at home, Jaden Harvey said, such as recording booths, instruments, cameras, sewing machines, etc.
The team pitched the idea to Beaver, who took it to the library’s board of directors in February. The board was very excited and receptive to the students’ proposed plans, said Beaver, initially offering a basement storage room as a potential future location for the “teen space.”
A victory for the students, they submitted their project to the Jefferson Awards Foundation, a national community service recognition group that has recognized the Brownsville team in the past for its work. For its efforts, the team won first place out of four schools in the Pittsburgh region and was named a 2018 Gold Leadership School.
However, in late April, the library’s board of directors made a new, more substantial offer to the group.
Instead of a small space in the library’s basement to house the new teen center, the board suggested creating a new addition on the south side of the building, one that could have its own entrance and be accessible after regular library hours.
“They’ve given us the go ahead. We just have to fund it,” said Kellie Polvinale, the team’s second adviser.
Polvinale said that Brownsville alumni had already reached out to the group about funding a potential project. She said the team will seek a professional estimate on cost of the project.
That will be the start of Phase 2 of the library project. The goal, said Becky Harvey, is to have an actual “teen space” at the library by next year at this time.
“In their eyes, when they look at what’s important to them, they think this building being here can make a lasting impact for years to come,” Polvinale said.
The Brownsville SIA team will travel to Washington, D.C., in June to compete against other regional winners to determine a national winner for community service efforts.