CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Generations of families have spent their time reading at the Taft Public Library. Now, one family who considers it a special place wants to improve it.
The Ritchie family plans to gift a new building in honor of their mother.
They held a groundbreaking ceremony to make it official. Digging into the soil with a golden shovel.
It symbolizes the beginning of a new chapter for the Taft community, one led by the Ritchie Family Foundation.
"Our mother Marietta Ritchie was involved with the library for decades along with other projects here in Taft like the Taft Women's Club,” Ritchie said.
Wes and his sister Amy shared how they grew up going to the library with their mom. So, after their parents passed away, they wanted to do something special.
"We decided the appropriate way to honor her and them by completing her dream of having an expanded or new library,” Ritchie said.
The Ritchie Foundation was created with the purpose of helping make that dream come true.
“The new library is going to be almost 4,000 square feet,” Ritchie said.
It'll be bigger and more state-of-the-art.
"The way to introduce learning to children even when they're toddlers is to instill a love of learning, even if it’s through books, online learning, and so many different avenues,” Amy Allen said.
Amy said times have changed, and the library needs to change as well. Especially with the high percentage of students in Taft ISD who were considered at risk of dropping out of school during the 2021 to 2022 school year, those numbers, according to the Texas Tribune.
"When we think of this new library, you'll be able to go online. There will be television screens, computers and books. It'll be state-of-the-art,” Ritchie said.
Construction is expected to start in the next two months, and the goal is to open the public library by the end of the year.
