WESTFIELD — A young Westfield girl is being remembered through a STEM lab at Westfield Washington Public Library.
Today, the library dedicated their Makerspace and STEM lab to Annie Gotwald, who passed away suddenly in February.
Her family says the nine year old had a special interest in outer space and planets and loved experiments. In her honor, they set up a GoFundMe to support STEM Education in Westfield.
That funding was used to create the library's stem lab.
"We were just floored by the support the community provided us after Annie’s passing,” says Annie’s mom Lindsay Gotwald. “We wanted to pass that generosity along by investing in STEM education that was accessible to everyone in Westfield. She would have loved this new space. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect opportunity to build her legacy.”
The space will offer drop-in projects, individual stem activities, and scheduled classes to library patrons.
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It also has several pieces of equipment that kids and library patrons will have access to.
"There is a podcast studio there is a green screen for recording purposes. People can come in record music. There are sewing machines," Erin Downey, Executive Director of Westfield Library Foundation said. "Just a wide varity of stem related items but also every day tools for someone who wants to come in and make a piece of jewelry."
The programming will be for kids of all ages but the library says anyone is welcome to use the space.
