It’s hard to imagine a school without a library, but until recently that was the reality at the Carlos Pacheco School in New Bedford.

But during April vacation, almost 50 volunteers from the Mattapoisett Congregational Church helped the school sort and set up its own reading center.

School counselor Kim Pearson started the Carlos Pacheco School Library Project Facebook page last year with the goal of establishing a library at her school. She secured the donation of several bookshelves and asked the community to fill them. The response was overwhelming. Everyone from local residents to teaching associations contributed reading material for the kids.

“Thousands of new and used books poured in. I have no idea where they all came from. It was just a plea on social media and word of mouth,” said Susan Grosart, the Missions Committee chair.

The church has developed a connection with the elementary school this school year, sending volunteers to work as classroom aids. Grosart, who helps in the kindergarten, said the church was happy to lend a hand with the library as well.

The Carlos Pacheco Elementary School serves 391 children, including 220 English language learners. All of the children come from low-income homes and qualify for free or reduced lunch, said Grosart.

Some sorting was done last year, but by winter, there was a room in the school’s basement filled four feet high with boxes of books.

While the kids were away, the church volunteers descended on the school to unbox, organize and shelve the donations, aided by church member and Dr. Johnanna Riley, a retired school superintendent as well as Principal Celeste Hoeg. Some students from UMass Dartmouth also pitched in.

“It’s amazing what they did,” Hoeg said. “They took this project on themselves completely.”

Grosart said the dozens of volunteers “worked tirelessly to create sections for pre-K and kindergarten, early readers, beginner fiction, junior fiction, reference and non-fiction such as math, history, geography, physical science and technology, among others.”

Even as they were organizing the library, kids from Carlos Pacheco School and Hayden-McFadden School were at home reading books donated by the church, which sent home a volume for every first grader to keep.

“For some of these kids it may be the first book they’ve had to own,” said Grosart. “Our church is big on literacy.”

The church plans to continue its relationship with the school and expand its volunteering, and there is still sorting and shelving to be done in the library. Grosart said she hopes to see more bilingual books added as many of the students’ first language is Spanish.

The library should be open in a couple of weeks, and the kids are eager to check out books. Hoeg said she watched the students' expressions on Monday as they passed the new setup for the first time.

Seeing their excitement, “It was just amazing,” she said.