Last Friday The Western Pocono Community Library celebrated its 47th anniversary and honored Carol Kern, the previous library director, for her 45 years of dedication to the Western Pocono Community Library and all its patrons.

“This is the first time I have been in the library since I walked out the door,” Kern said.

Kern was a champion for the library’s continued growth.

State Sen. Mario Scavello presented Kern with a Senate citation and a plaque was unveiled in her honor.

He said, “Carol has truly been the heart and soul of the library. Without her vision for a public library in the West End it may have never some to be, and she is more than deserving of the recognition she received.”

The Western Pocono Community Library first opened in April 1975 with 300 square feet of space in Zion United Church on Route 209 in Brodheadsville. A year later, the library relocated to a 3,000-square-foot rented home, where it continued to grow as the community did. In October 2000, the current two-level, multifunctional facility was dedicated.

Kern, who was the catalyst behind the growing library and the new building in 2000, was tireless when it came to finding grants and money for library programs.

Sometimes a woman of few words, she was always thinking of ways to improve the library and ways to keep the members coming back.

She said after working so many years, it was an adjustment to being home.

“When I was growing up, my father had a business and I was always with him and doing things with him, and that was what I did here, too. I was always busy,” Kern said.

“I started sailing when I was 5 years old. I grew up in Bayhead Barnegat Bay. My father and I joined a sailing club, and from then on, whenever we could, we went sailing,” she said.

She recently had knee surgery that prevented her from sailing this summer, but she said she has every intention to be out on the water next spring on the sailboat she has owned since she was 15.

New Director Patti Weiss has worked hard during the COVID-19 lockdowns by finding games and programs designed to use in distance learning and offers ways to keep people engaged in still using their library, keeping the younger kids and teens engaged with the library using the internet.

“We have almost all the programs opening up and we will soon have all the programs up and running,” she said

The celebration had at least 50 people attend. There is something for everyone at the Western Pocono Community Library, and the library employees are eager to help.