Memorial bench for beloved library director unveiled
A memorial bench honoring Leroy Hommerding was unveiled on Monday. The bench was built by the students at AMIkids Southwest Florida. It sits on the ground floor of the Fort Myers Beach Public Library.
Hommerding had been the beloved director of the Fort Myers Beach Public Library since 2000. In January, he was fatally stabbed as he opened the doors for a weekend book sale.
Hommerding’s legacy lives on through the library that was built in his vision and the numerous lives he positively impacted.
“This library would simply not be here without him,” said Cletus Poser, the new library director.
The students of AMIkids got to know Hommerding by volunteering at each book sale that the library held over the past two years.
AMIkids is a non-profit organization that seeks to help youths realize and achieve their full potential.
“I’ve been with the program about seven months, and I’m getting ready to transition out of it,” said Haven Krabill, 15-years-old. “My GPA has gone from being in the low twos to a high three. I came here because I didn’t respect myself or others. It’s helped a lot with that.”
“We would help Leroy with unpacking the books, and he was always very gracious. He was just a really nice man. He let us take books whenever we wanted,” said Krabill.
“Leroy impacted the children greatly,” said Jeffrey Jean-Jacques, executive director of AMIkids. “It wasn’t just that he allowed them to come and set up for the book sales; while we were here, he would talk to them and try to find out who they really were. Not as a student in the program, but as a person, as an individual.”
“Leroy wanted to get to know the kids on a deeper level, and in turn, get them to know themselves better,” said Jean-Jacques.
Hope Juarez, AMIkids partnership recruiter, had the idea to build the bench in Hommerding’s honor. Ten students made the bench during their vocational class at AMIkids. The bench took about two weeks to make.
“If he was there the day that we were helping with a book sale, he always made it a point to come down and talk to the kids and say thank you,” said Juarez. “To me, that stood out. He meant so much to everyone he interacted with. I knew we had to do something for Leroy, and the students were all totally on board with building the bench.”