Monday, February 8, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Thanks to Friends
Friends of the Library fundraisers in 2009 raised close to $20,000 for the Sumter County Library. Both the Fourth Annual Forrest Ray 5K and the Annual Book Sale were great successes; not only financially, but also in generating positive PR for the Library. These annual events are highly anticipated. The Library receives calls year round asking where and when the book sale will be held. Volunteering at the Book Sale, I hear many people tell me they look forward to the event every year.
Each fundraiser is a collaborative effort. The 5K has a committee that begins meeting in late spring each year to begin planning for the October race. Friends' volunteers organize books for the sale year round, and many Friends give generously of their time to organize, set up, and run the sale itself. What would the Library do without your generous assistance?
The Sumter County Library has experienced cuts in its funding the last two years. Money generated from Friends’ fundraisers help us “fill in the gaps” in the budget. How do we use that money?
To answer that question, I think the first step is to ask what the Library does. The Library mission statement begins, “The Sumter County Library is dedicated to the promotion of life-long learning that enhances the cultural, recreational, and education needs of the community it serves.” The Library helps deliver quality education for everyone. It does this by providing self-directed education through a collection of items in print and online. The Library is a source of research assistance and instruction for individuals and groups. Classes, seminars, and workshops for all ages taught or facilitated by library instructors. The Library also presents Instructive and enlightening experiences through cultural and community center concepts, events and partnerships.
Friends funding helps us in each and every one of these areas, particularly in programs and services to children, including the annual summer reading program. Recent research, released September 17, 2009 by Jumpstart, a nonprofit focused on early literacy intervention, highlights that reading to children during the early years, especially ages 3-5, when their brains are undergoing the most growth and development, sets the stage for all later learning and success in life. Intervening early to teach at-risk preschool children language, literacy, and social skills is critical. The widespread early childhood literacy crisis has an impact on the nation’s dropout rates, workforce competitiveness, and economy.
So whether you chair a committee, organize books for the sale, help to set up, spend your Saturday or Sunday at the Mall during the sale, donate or buy a book at the sale, help with the 5K – all of these contributions are like a pebble tossed into a pond. They ripple far beyond their immediate action and can positively affect people you may never meet, but who will benefit from your kindness and generosity.
Robert Harden/Director
Each fundraiser is a collaborative effort. The 5K has a committee that begins meeting in late spring each year to begin planning for the October race. Friends' volunteers organize books for the sale year round, and many Friends give generously of their time to organize, set up, and run the sale itself. What would the Library do without your generous assistance?
The Sumter County Library has experienced cuts in its funding the last two years. Money generated from Friends’ fundraisers help us “fill in the gaps” in the budget. How do we use that money?
To answer that question, I think the first step is to ask what the Library does. The Library mission statement begins, “The Sumter County Library is dedicated to the promotion of life-long learning that enhances the cultural, recreational, and education needs of the community it serves.” The Library helps deliver quality education for everyone. It does this by providing self-directed education through a collection of items in print and online. The Library is a source of research assistance and instruction for individuals and groups. Classes, seminars, and workshops for all ages taught or facilitated by library instructors. The Library also presents Instructive and enlightening experiences through cultural and community center concepts, events and partnerships.
Friends funding helps us in each and every one of these areas, particularly in programs and services to children, including the annual summer reading program. Recent research, released September 17, 2009 by Jumpstart, a nonprofit focused on early literacy intervention, highlights that reading to children during the early years, especially ages 3-5, when their brains are undergoing the most growth and development, sets the stage for all later learning and success in life. Intervening early to teach at-risk preschool children language, literacy, and social skills is critical. The widespread early childhood literacy crisis has an impact on the nation’s dropout rates, workforce competitiveness, and economy.
So whether you chair a committee, organize books for the sale, help to set up, spend your Saturday or Sunday at the Mall during the sale, donate or buy a book at the sale, help with the 5K – all of these contributions are like a pebble tossed into a pond. They ripple far beyond their immediate action and can positively affect people you may never meet, but who will benefit from your kindness and generosity.
Robert Harden/Director
A Random Thought on Libraries and Reading
When one reads a text, whether that text is a book, magazine, newspaper, internet article, encyclopedia entry, you get the idea; one is gaining an attribute or a value. When we read, what are we doing, after all? We are learning a new word, phrase, idea, notion, parable, moral, fact, lie, etc. We also re-learn old ideas and idioms passed down to us through years of education, whether through the musings of a schoolteacher or whimsical Saturdays browsing through books in a Library.
So we learn, constantly, always through our printed pages, environments and experiences. As we learn, our brain develops and we evolve as human beings. So I position this: if reading, throughout its various forms, causes us to change and rationalize the world more independently and thoughtfully, does that mean the act of reading is the highest of human virtues? Going even further; are libraries the highest of places for knowledge and intellect? I believe so!
So we learn, constantly, always through our printed pages, environments and experiences. As we learn, our brain develops and we evolve as human beings. So I position this: if reading, throughout its various forms, causes us to change and rationalize the world more independently and thoughtfully, does that mean the act of reading is the highest of human virtues? Going even further; are libraries the highest of places for knowledge and intellect? I believe so!
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