When the Children’s Storytime Room in the Riverside Public Library reopened on Dec. 15, it did so as a memorial to a Riverside woman who loved learning, books and the importance of both in the lives of children.
Regrettably, the woman for whom the Storytime Room was dedicated, Carrie Chrozempa wasn’t there to open the double doors along with her husband, David, and her daughters, Charlotte, 6, and Celia, 5. Chrozempa died April 3 after a three-year bout with colon cancer. But friends and family made sure to create a fitting memorial to the 38 year old.
“It was an extremely appropriate gift,” said David Chrozempa. “Carrie took the girls to the library a lot and read to them every night.”
In addition to her love of books, Carrie Chrozempa was also a member of the Riverside Junior Woman’s Charity, After Chrozempa’s death, the Juniors set about raising money for redecorating and furnishing the Storytime Room at the library, which also doubled as office space for library staff.
The Juniors, according to David Chrozempa, raised about a third of the money needed for the transformation, while family friend Nancy Connolly helped raise the rest. In all, over $7,000 was donated to the library for the project, which began in September.
“We didn’t want the money to just go into a general fund,” said Cindy Vitek, a Riverside Juniors member who worked with Connolly and library officials on the plans for the room. “We wanted to do something specific and important.”
After talking with Library Director Janice Fisher, Vitek was sure they had the right project.
“[Chrozempa] was really into education and reading,” Vitek said. “Every gift I ever got from her was a book.”
The room was recarpeted and repainted. The painting was not your ordinary effort, however. Instead, Riverside resident Elaine Leonard donated her services to paint a mural on all four walls of the room. As a result, the Storytime Room is something of a reading garden, surrounded by greenery and flowers.
Bookshelves line one wall of the room, and the lone chair now sitting in the room will soon be joined by a loveseat specifically meant for parents and their kids to sit together and read.
“We’re so pleased with the outpouring of support from the library and the community,” Vitek said. “We’re pleased there’s something that’s really representative of our friend and will benefit the community as well.”
The loveseat, in the shape of a book, will also be embroidered with the title of a children’s book, “Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type”-one of Chrozempa’s favorites to read with her girls.
“It’s more open and inviting for people to read with children,” said Fisher of the new Storytime Room. “We worked extra hard, because we wanted to make it as nice as possible.”
At the dedication on Dec. 15, David Chrozempa and his two children joined 100 or so people. The family untied the red and white ribbon around the door handles and then pulled the doors open and stepped inside. On the wall just outside the room is a plaque bearing Carrie Chrozempa’s name. The picture on the plaque was one that David and Carrie made for a high school reunion at Carrie’s alma mater Carl Sandburg in Orland Park.
In the Carl Sandburg yearbook, there was a picture of Carrie Chrozempa, with her feet up, reading a physics book. Chrozempa later went to Dartmouth College and became an attorney before giving up that career to raise her daughters.
In the recreation of the photo, Chrozempa has her feet up, reading a children’s book.
David Chrozempa said that he will seek to raise money on an ongoing basis to maintain the Storytime Room.
“I look at it as a long-term relationship with the room and the library’s reading program,” Chrozempa said.