‘I feel like we’ve pretty much recovered’: Skyridge Middle School library collection rebuilt after storm damage thanks to grants

On Jan. 14, 2024, a winter storm caused fire sprinkler and HVAC system pipes at Skyridge Middle School in Camas to freeze and crack, sending more than 3,200 gallons of water through the building and damaging 22 classrooms and the school’s library. Within minutes, the flood destroyed hundreds of books, including most of the library’s science tomes.

Sarah Logan, who took over as the school’s librarian in the fall of 2024, inherited the task of rebuilding the library collection, which was left incomplete due to a lack of insurance funds.

“I had to prioritize purchasing nonfiction that students were asking for and figuring out what else was missing,” Logan said. “That’s doable. I can do that. What I can’t do is spin straw into gold. I am not Rumpelstiltskin.”

But Logan didn’t need a fairy tale dealmaker after all. With an infusion of grant funding, the task that once seemed impossible became tangible, allowing her to steadily rebuild the collection, replace hundreds of lost books and restore the library as a resource for Skyridge students.

“It’s rewarding to see the holes in the section refilled,” said Kimberly Lottig, the school’s library paraprofessional. “It’s hard when the kids come in and say, ‘Do you have a book on this?’ and you have to say ‘No.’ That makes us sad.”

Logan received $6,240 in grant funding during the past two years, including a $2,000 grant in 2025 from the OnPoint Community Credit Union’s Excellence in Education Community Builder Award, given to outstanding educators and school projects in the communities that OnPoint serves.

“Sarah stepped in to lead the effort to restore the library as a place where students could continue exploring and learning,” said Tim Clevenger, OnPoint’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “But rather than simply replacing what was lost, Sarah used the setback as an opportunity to build something better.”

Logan also received grants from the Camas Education Foundation, Walmart Spark Good, the American Association of School Librarians, the Kellogg Foundation, the Washington State Library, the Garden Club of Camas and Washougal, Shokookai of Portland, the Skyridge Parent-Teacher Organization, iQ Credit Union and Jewish American Heritage Month.

“I feel like we’ve pretty much recovered from the flood,” Logan said. “Applying for grants is always part of a school librarian’s job. The flood just meant there was a bigger hole for me to fill. It’s hard to say this publicly, but in some ways, the flood has resulted in a better collection because so many of the books in the science section are relatively new.”

Logan said securing grants is difficult because Skyridge doesn’t have Title I status, a federal designation for institutions that receive extra resources to support low-income students and close achievement gaps.

“For many grants, at least part of the criteria has to do with the socioeconomic makeup of students,” she said. “And many times, grants want you to be innovative, which is great, but what I need is money for books, which isn’t particularly innovative, so I have to sort of find ways to spin buying books into innovation.”

She did more than that, Clevenger said.

“Sarah’s work goes far beyond replacing damaged books,” he said. “She recognized the library as a critical resource for students and intentionally rebuilt the collection with more diverse authors, histories, images and perspectives so every Skyridge student can see themselves represented.”