As the school years draws to an end in Bibb County, we are reminded of all the teachers who have touched lives. Now, and in the past.

The Woodstock Community Library sends our deepest thanks to the teachers in our community.

Almost every day, a child comes through the doors of the library excited about something they have learned in school, or looking for a book their teacher or school librarian told them about.

It’s pure joy on our end to be even a small part of that.

Some days, it’s an adult who tells us the story of a teacher who impacted them and that happened twice today!

A young man who grew up in Hueytown and recently listened to the S-Town podcast stopped by.

As it turns out, his ancestors are from the Woodstock area and they donated the land where the Bibbville Baptist Church was built.

He shared with me the story of his great-great grandmother Hattie Belle Dunlap Dowdle and gifted her photo to the library archives.

Hattie Belle taught school at Bibbville, Alabama and her influence is still felt in his life and doubtlessly, many untold others.

(He grew up to be a writer, teacher and a researcher of Southern writers like Flannery O’Connor.)

Later in the afternoon a lady named Amy stopped by the library to purchase a Woodstock Music Festival T-Shirt.

“How’s Mrs. Anne doing?” she asked.

(Mrs. Anne is our community’s retired librarian and a long-time teacher in Bibb County.)

Before I could reply, her eyes filled with unspilled tears and she continued to speak.

“I went back to school when I was 47. Mrs. Anne tutored me so I could pass college-level math and English. She gave me so much of her time. She believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.”

I have not met Mrs. Anne, but I know from my year here in Woodstock that many other people have the same testimony.

“She helped me. She taught me. She encouraged me.”

Don’t we owe such a debt of gratitude to our teachers?

Past and present.

(A personal thanks to Hoover High teacher and Birmingham broadcaster Reed Lochamy (and Will!) at Oh Brother Radio who thought a year ago that this was a story worth telling, 2nd grade teacher Emily Ellison and school secretary Anne McLelland Kornegay who both serve on the Woodstock Community Library board of directors, and Bibb County board of education member Mrs. Billie Dailey who has consistently been a supporter of the Woodstock Community Library. We appreciate you!)