She brought books to school

Doris Feider-Schlenvogt is retiring from a job she doesn’t get paid for in a department that isn’t in her employer’s budget.

The librarian for Ozaukee Christian School has turned the final page on that 22-year career.

Books have been her passion since her children started attending the school when it was in Saukville, before it moved to the Town of Trenton. Last week, she was packing up thousands of books for the school’s move to West Bend, where it will be known as FaithRidge School.

Feider-Schlenvogt’s involvement started on a near whim. She had been reading to her adopted 5-year-old son from Romania and 3-year-old biological daughter when she went on a tour of Ozaukee Christian.

“We’re walking through the building and I see this little library,” she said, and was told, “Well you know, we just haven’t been able to get her going for a number of reasons.’

“I thought oh, maybe that’s something I can do to help the school. I dove in.”

Feider-Schlenvogt quickly waded into the deep end of the book pool.

The library, once comprised of a few shelves in the hallway with about 100 books, now has more than 8,300, “and we’ve never been in the budget,” Feider-Schlenvogt said.

She held an annual book fair to raise money for new books and made connections across the area for donations.

“I just found ways. I’d ask parents. I would find stuff. If I saw a set at a rummage sale, I’d buy it,” she said.

Feider-Schlenvogt’s involvement with the school expanded to working at Hidden Treasure Resale Shop in Port Washington, an entity that supports Ozaukee Christian, and she is the school’s grant writer and a board member emeritus.

She doesn’t get paid for any of that either.

“Everything I do at the school is voluntary,” she said. “I write grants and I help at Hidden Treasure just because it’s fun.”

Books donated to the resale shop sometimes ended up in the library. When Feider-Schlenvogt started a graphic novels section, someone took interest.

“I was talking to a donor at the school He just thought that was so cool. He gave me a $500 grant,” she said.

The section became a big hit.

“Kids are always taking those books, but I would always suggest to them, OK, take a graphic novel, but then take a chapter book or something schematic,” she said.

“Even in a graphic novel, kids are still reading. That’s why I didn’t object to kids taking those books.”

Feider-Schlenvogt checked the books to make sure they were appropriate and grouped them into categories by grade.

“I was very particular,” she said.

“A few years ago I created a seventh and eighth-grade section. They’re higher-level books, but you don’t always want a third-grader reading a seventh-grade book.”

Feider-Schlenvogt doesn’t have a degree in education or library science. She has an associate’s degree in the medical field and used to be an office manager for an ophthalmologist in Milwaukee.

“When I very first started, honestly I went to the library in Port Washington and asked them some questions,” she said.

She figured out how to help students develop a love of reading.

“When a child had a particular interest in certain books, I could direct them to exactly what we had,” she said. “It was great seeing kids learn to love to read. I wanted the kids to read because it benefits them.”

Feider-Schlenvogt learned the Dewey Decimal System and, along with help from a few volunteers, organized the library’s thousands of books.

“I would come home and I’d have a chunk of the cards on our kitchen counter. I’d alphabetize them,” she said,

“Literally, I’m not kidding, I bet I prepared 6,000 books,” she laughed. She is grateful that software has simplified that process.

Feider-Schlenvogt pulled out books for a theme she chose each month, often tying it into a Christian topic, and worked with teachers on getting books about certain subjects students were studying.

She helped find books for second-graders doing book reports. Even seventh and eighth-graders doing research papers came to the library instead of using computers.

“You have to be flexible when you have kids coming from nine grades,” she said. “You have hundreds and hundreds of books out.”

School Executive Director Chris Bergstresser said Feider-Schlenvogt worked well with students and teachers.

“It was definitely a team effort there. She was such a friendly presence in the library. It takes a special person to get kids excited about reading,” he said.

Feider-Schlenvogt held library day once a week and became a bit of a book whisperer, reading samplings of books to groups of students.

“If they wanted it, they raised their hand and they got it first,” she said.

Feider-Schlenvogt also never let a student off the hook.

“You always have a couple of kids who don’t like to read. With more than 8,000 books, I wasn’t going let them tell me you don’t have any books that I want.” Feider-Schlenvogt will be missed for more than her library expertise.

“Having her here was a blessing. Her love for God and her love for reading are both infectious. She was always a smiling face. The kids always loved having her as a librarian,” Bergstresser said.

Feider-Schlenvogt grew up in Dacada and didn’t have access to a large selection of books until she got to Random Lake High School. She later discovered libraries in Milwaukee and developed a larger passion for reading.

Now that she’s leaving her librarian gig, the Town of Port Washington resident has more time for her own reading.

“I’m always usually reading four or five books at a time,” she said. Fiction writer Kristin Hannah is a favorite, as is novelist Jane Smiley.

Feider-Schlenvogt also plans to knit, crochet and do cross-stitch, as well as spend time with her husband Gary.

A portion of Feider-Schlenvogt’s home, however, is dedicated to that other passion.

“I’ve got a fair amount of books here. I’ll be reading, trust me,” she said.