El Progreso Memorial Library is archiving memorials, donations from Uvalde school shooting

UVALDE – Library director Tammie Sinclair has gotten into the habit of making sure she knows what each of her children are wearing each morning.

She takes inventory in her mind – their shoes, their shirts, their pants. She has to be ready just in case she needs to locate and identify them.

“It’s different, you know, I do things now that I never really did before. I always think I have more time than I actually do in the morning to get ready, but it’s little things now that have changed my habits,” Sinclair said. “I need to remember what my kids are wearing today.”

Sinclair is director of El Progreso Memorial Library in Uvalde, where a gunman killed 19 fourth graders and two teachers on May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School.

The parents of 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez identified her because of the shoes she was wearing. Maite wore green Converse sneakers the day of the shooting. The right shoe had a little black heart the girl had drawn in the center.

“You think of those green Converse, and that was something that was really big in this,” Sinclair said.

Uvalde has since been met with a sea of revolving therapists, artists, actors and organizations that want to help the community heal.

Many donations were sent to El Progreso Memorial Library, including books, art pieces and quilts. Among the many donations is a sculpture of 1,000 paper cranes, symbolizing peace for the community. The cranes are among the first items one sees on display when entering the library.

After more than 9,000 items were sent to Uvalde, former library director Mendell Morgan realized it was time to organize a team to help preserve many items, including full-body wooden cutouts of the 21 victims and sympathy cards.

The Los Angelitos De Robb Archival Media collection is housed at the library’s Virginia Wood Davis Archive, dedicated to documenting the history of Uvalde.

“The intent was to grasp the community and national response to the tragedy, and we chose to focus on the positive outcomes. Who showed up to support and that was really our intent in letting families, whenever they needed to come back, to reflect on all the people who showed up willing to help,” Sinclair said.

In February, through a partnership with the National Endowment for Humanities and Humanities Texas, a $70,000 grant was awarded to the library to support the ongoing development of this remembrance project. The organizing of these materials required expert-level knowledge on how to preserve delicate items.

For the grieving community of 15,000 residents, El Progreso Memorial Library has served as a sanctuary. The library opened its doors the day after the shooting to provide a space for anyone who needed it.

The library hosted attractions for Uvalde children, including petting zoos, emotional support animal visits and bouncy houses. The library continues to provide library services and programs for the Uvalde community.

The library dedicated its space to the community, offering many forms of grief assistance right after the shooting. Additionally, it opened its premises to host a rock garden display outside of the library.

The Los Angelitos de Robb ("Little Angels of Robb") Archive will be completed and digitized for remote access later this year. The media collection is accessible for viewing at the library via their computers.

Brett Cross and Nikki Cross, parents of 10-year-old Uziyah “Uzi” Garcia, who was killed in the shooting, recognize the efforts the library has taken to repair their community.

“The world cares, and that is an amazing thing,” Brett Cross said.

The Crosses appreciate the library’s dutiful work to preserve the collections.

“Uzi’s story didn’t just end that day. His impact and his reach has traveled further than that. The people that came and put stuff down on his cross at the plaza, where I’m sure this stuff was collected from, that is a story,” Brett Cross said.

“It definitely will get more reach in this day and age if it’s digitized,” Nikki Cross said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Public library helps community heal after Uvalde school shooting