Paoli Hospital Library: Coolest Stop on Go WilMa Tour

The Go WilMa program, a , offers young readers a chance to explore local parks as they do their summer reading—but what's to be done about those scorching-hot days when trekking through a park seems unwise?

Those would be the occasions to visit the program's one indoor stop—the medical library. Go WilMa organizers gathered there Tuesday morning to showcase the new program and speak of its successes.

What is Go WilMa? or watch the attached video to learn more.

Hospital librarian Ellen Sanford said around 50 children had already visited the library through Go WilMa. 

As Sanford spoke, one young reader, Maggie Elder, used a crayon to make a rubbing of a plate in the library. Go WilMa participants make the rubbings in a "captain's log" to show their progress. Maggie and her sister, Tess, both of whom attend Saints Simon and Jude School in Westtown, also checked their heartbeat and enjoyed other health-related activities set up in the library.

Sanford said the program dovetails nicely with the hospital's goal of raising the library's profile. The medical library is open to the public, and offers access to reliable medical information and journals.

Rosalie Dietz, librarian at , and Beverly Michaels, librarian at , both said that the Go WilMa boosted their summer reading program enrollment. Each had given out hundreds of the "captains logs," even signing up young readers from other libraries, like Exton and Tredyffrin, who traveled to participate.

Share your stories

Mary McLoughlin, director of Willistown Parks, encouraged participants to like Go WilMa's Facebook page, and to share their stories with her via email.

Lou Elder, Tess and Maggie's mother, related one such story, about encountering a young deer when they visited . The fawn, caught between she and her girls, another family and a fence, wasn't sure which direction to go. 

"It was the cutest thing, because he would be running, then he would turn around. He couldn't have been more than a week old. His mom must have been in the woods," Elder said.

She and her daughters paused bit, and the animal eventually founds its way out into the woods, she said.

Library hours

The parks involved in the program are open from dawn to dusk, but the Paoli Hospital medical library has shorter hours. It is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.