In a project spearheaded by Escalon Lions Club member Tom Machado, a total of 500 books for children were recently donated to the Escalon Public Library.

“We always focus on the kids,” said Lions Club member Ralph Lyda in helping Club President Kenny Taggart make the book presentation recently.

The Club approved a monetary donation to assist the library and Lyda and Taggart said Machado ran with it from there, parlaying the funds into 500 books. All have been labelled as being a gift from the local Lions Club and are being added in to the Escalon system so children can start to enjoy the new offerings.

“This all came up about two months ago, it was his idea all the way through,” Taggart added of Machado.

Amanda Clifford, a library assistant for Escalon, said the donation was much more than was anticipated and the library was thrilled to receive 500 new books.

“They were delivered during our Winter Wonderland program,” she said of hosting holiday festivities at the local branch earlier this month. “It was amazing.”

Meanwhile, the Library’s Storytime and Makerspace programs are going on break for the holidays.

There will not be a storytime or makerspace program on Thursdays, Dec. 22 or 29, but they will resume in the new year, starting with Thursday, Jan. 5.