Heriberto Madrigal didn’t know there was any such thing as a public library until he was in seventh grade. The library at his school had been demolished, and the boy — the child of immigrants and a student at Belle Haven School — wasn’t aware that the city operated a library across town.
He was told about it when he had to research a seventh-grade science paper, and decided he’d check it out. Once at the Menlo Park Civic Center, he discovered a spacious building rich with more books than he had ever dreamed could be his — at least for three weeks at a time.
A naturally curious boy, he explored shelves lined with volumes not only on science but on art, geography and other topics that helped him learn about the world. He was hooked. “I decided the library would be a good place to work,” he recalls.
Now 21, Mr. Madrigal — affectionately known as Pollo by family and friends — is a regular presence at the Belle Haven branch city-school library that in 1999 opened at the school he attended as a child. There, he works part-time with a handful of other staff members determined to help broaden the horizons of kids whose opportunities are often limited by poverty, language challenges and other factors.
In March, he organized a Scholastics Books fair that, because of extra efforts on his part, raised more money and put more books in the classrooms and on library shelves than any such event before.
“The book fair was completely his this year,” says Judy Fagerholm, head librarian at the Belle Haven branch. His efforts, she adds, led to hundreds of dollars more in sales than past years.
The nearly $985 in total sales came close to tripling that of last year’s $365, Mr. Madrigal says.
Plus, by placing large water-cooler jars in the library and in several supportive businesses in the community for people to drop money into, he raised an additional $200 to buy books.
Mr. Madrigal and his helpers created an easy way for parents to donate toward purchase of books on teachers’ wish lists. And kids who couldn’t afford to buy books were told to let the library staff know which books they wanted to read; those books will be purchased for the library collection with proceeds from the fair, which was set up in the library for an entire week.
Going the extra step
A young man of seemingly endless energy, Mr. Madrigal manages to squeeze much into his schedule on top of his library work. Until recently, he was working 20 to 35 hours a week at the Starbucks on Marsh Road, and taking 12 units of courses at Foothill College, where he studies biology.He’s cut his Starbucks schedule back to 10 to 15 hours to make more time for his studies, and hopes to transfer to San Francisco State University in the near future.
A heavy workload is something he’s been used to for quite some time. When he graduated from Belle Haven School, he applied for a job as a page at the Menlo Park Library, and worked there for two years while attending Menlo-Atherton High School.
An avid learner who says “it’s better to share learning with other people once you’ve got it,” he began tutoring younger students when he was still in the eighth-grade, and continued doing so as a freshman at M-A.
Ms. Fagerholm hired him as a permanent staff member at Belle Haven in 2002.
He’s a perfect fit for the small, hard-working staff at the branch library, which operates with funding from the city and the Ravenswood School District.
“We love him,” Ms. Fagerholm says. “He always goes the extra step for patrons, for the kids and for us.”
Still a Belle Haven resident, Mr. Madrigal says kids will approach him when he’s out and about in the community, and greet him: “Hi, Library Man!”
Mr. Madrigal says his goal is to return to the Belle Haven School classroom as a science teacher. But he also will work toward a doctorate in forensic pathology.
Such high aims are not surprising to his colleagues. “He’s going to be able to do whatever he makes up his mind to do,” Ms. Fagerholm predicts.
