Carola Sauers was a woman of great conviction.

The German-born woman stood up for those who she felt were not being heard and made it her mission to live as full of a life as she could.

She loved nature, reading and nurturing children’s understand of the world around them.

She could be found cleaning graffiti off of rocks in Glen Onoko, picking up litter whenever she was out for walks and just making sure the world around her was left a little prettier than it had been before.

Tragically, on May 12, 2014, Carola’s life was cut short when a Nesquehoning police officer sped head-on into the car she and her husband, Michael, were driving on Route 209 between Jim Thorpe and Nesquehoning. The crash killed the 69-year-old woman.

But her memory wasn’t lost in that moment, and her vision of helping others is living on through her husband’s work to remember the love of his life.

Last year, after walking past Dimmick Memorial Library in Jim Thorpe numerous times, Michael knew what he wanted to do. He walked in and asked Kara Edmonds, director of the library, how to create a special memorial in his wife’s name at a place she loved to visit.

On June 28, following a $10,000 donation by Sauers, the Carola Sauers Children’s Library inside the Dimmick Memorial Library opened to the public.

“Michael’s generous donation and hard work is super important to the kids here in the library,” John McGuire, president and trustee of the library, said. “It’s very important for Carola’s memory.”

Sauers said that the donation was the perfect fit for the library that was already in existence. He recently donated an additional $300 to help with programs and supplies in the children’s section. This donation he hopes will become an annual donation that he and then his daughter will continue well into the future.

Edmonds said the money Sauers gave the library was used to build bookshelves for the children’s section, create coat racks and help with lighting updates. A sign painted by local artist Dan Becker also memorialized Carola and is welcome to all children and young adults who visit.

“It seemed like the whole room got a face-lift,” she said, pointing out that the library staff was able to move the children’s DVD collection back to this section to create a “mini campus” for students and also help provide space in the rest of the library.

“I’ve noticed a big difference,” she said. “Kids seem to be drawn back here more. It changed the flavor of how kids use the space.”

The Carola Sauers Children’s Library is used not only for children visiting to check out books, but is now a central hub for many children’s programs, including preschool reading hour, the summer reading program and the new Lego Club, which pairs reading, hands-on STEM activities and exercises together.

“The Carola Sauers Children’s library has been a good seed for all these programs, and it’s flowering now,” McGuire said.

This isn’t the first library Sauers opened in his wife’s name.

“After the accident, I opened a library at Eldred Elementary School in Kunkletown,” Sauers said. “It was very nice. They gave me my old classroom, but I had a hard time drawing kids to it.”

Sauers made the hard decision to move on from that and eventually found his wife’s library’s new home.

“It’s the perfect fit,” he said.

If you would like to visit Dimmick Memorial Library, the hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Friday; 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

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