(Northwest Kansas Library System staff traveled to Grinnell Middle School, Grinnell USD 291, on June 18, to help sort through and categorize the hundreds of books donated to after the May 18 tornado demolished the district's elementary school library. Photo submitted by Mary Boller, Northwest Kansas Library System.)

As the town of Grinnell continues to clean up the damage from an EF-3 tornado on May 18, Grinnell USD 291 is also recovering from the destruction. 

“We are committed to beginning repair and restoration work immediately,” Keith Hall, USD 291 superintendent, said in a May 20 Facebook post. “Our repair crew has already started work as we mobilize to assess damages and move forward with recovery as quickly and efficiently as possible.” 

Hall also said all of the district’s properties that sustained damage “are fully insured.” 

Elizabeth Rietcheck, USD 291 clerk, said several of the Grinnell High School football field’s structures including the bleachers, bathrooms and concession stand and the high school’s gymnasium roof were also damaged. The tornado packed 140 mile per hour winds that lodged debris into the football field. To remove the debris, several inches of the field’s entire surface will have to be taken off, Rietcheck said. 

The tornado also hit the west side of Grinnell Elementary where glass and debris were embedded in the school’s library books. When the news got out the school’s library had sustained significant damage, books began pouring into Grinnell from around Kansas, the U.S. and the world.  

Amy Anderson, Grinnell Elementary’s librarian and secretary, has played a significant role in getting hundreds of the donated books ready for the 2025-26 school year. She said soon after the tornado, a librarian influencer on TikTok heard about the need for books and immediately posted a link to Amazon where books could be bought. 

“Within minutes, people just started buying and buying,” Anderson recalled, adding 72 copies of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? were bought during the book blitz. “We’re going to have some kind of activity this coming school year and every child will get one of these books.” 

Because of the sheer volume of books that have come in, only monetary donations to restock the school’s library are currently being accepted. However, Anderson said an Amazon wish list to replenish furniture and supplies for the elementary school’s teachers remains active. 

“They had everything wiped out,” she said. 

Anderson said all of the work she’s done since May 18 wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the Grinnell and surrounding communities as well as her close-knit library community, including Erin Walz, director and librarian at the Moore Family Library, in Grinnell. 

“She’s definitely been my rock through all of this,” Anderson said of Walz. She also said Mary Boller and her staff of the Northwest Kansas Library System, in Norton, brought hundreds of books to Grinnell earlier this month and went through them, choosing the best ones for placement in the elementary library. She said they will be back again in Grinnell early next month to help set up the elementary’s library in the middle school building before school begins in August.  

“We’ve been inspired and honored to help in any way we can and we want the spotlight to be on this community,” Boller said. “We’re used to working behind the scenes and wanted to take this part of the work off their plates. That’s our mission - to be there for our small and rural libraries.” 

For the past month, Anderson said the support for the Grinnell community and the school district after the May 18 tornado has “restored my faith in humanity.” 

“You’ve got people reaching out and you can feel all the love,” she said. “It makes you think about all the good there is in people.”