McDowell County Library Offers Tax Help, Story Times, and Family Programs This Spring

MATCH, the McDowell-based nonprofit connecting residents to health and human services, is stationing IRS-certified volunteers at county library branches this spring to prepare state and federal tax returns free of charge.

The program accepts both walk-in visits and scheduled appointments by phone. Low- and moderate-income households stand to gain the most: in-person help ensures filers correctly claim credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit and bypasses the fees that commercial preparers typically charge.

The McDowell County Public Library has been running its spring programming calendar alongside the MATCH sessions. With the county school district's spring break spanning March 30 through April 3, the library packed family activities into the week. Preschool Story Time ran on Monday, March 30, and Tiny Tots Storytime followed on Tuesday, March 31. The After-School PEEPS Lab is on the schedule for today, April 1, giving school-age children a structured activity on the last midweek day of the break.

Those programs are distributed across the library system's five locations: the main branch in Welch and branch locations in Marion, War, Northfork, and Bradshaw. The Marion branch meeting room hosts certain programs, with the Welch main library anchoring the broader service network.

Public computers and internet access at each branch fill a real gap for households without reliable home broadband, which remains limited across portions of McDowell County. Residents who cannot reach a branch in person can use the Books By Mail program, which extends services to homebound and remote addresses. The library also maintains a seed library and propagation station.

The concentration of tax help, children's programming, and digital access under one institution reflects a practical reality in rural McDowell County, where transportation barriers make multiple errand stops difficult for many families. With the federal filing deadline approaching, the MATCH program's recurring presence at library locations gives residents a no-cost path to file on time.