It’s October, which means it’s time to start renewing your Friends of the Berryville Library memberships! Or joining for the first time. 🙂
We’ve had a really eventful year for the Friends, so keep reading to learn more about how the building project and other Friends work is progressing.
We currently have raised $2.8 million, so we’re at 80% of our goal. We’re so proud of the amount of money we’ve raised in the past 2.5 years and also tremendously grateful to all of the people in Berryville, Carroll County, and elsewhere who’ve made that possible.
But that means we still have some work to do for the remaining 20%. Keep an eye out in the mail next month for our upcoming end-of-year matching challenge, as well as our Friends renewal letter this month.
We’re also continuing to explore grant opportunities. Part of what makes for a successful grant application is showing community support. The grassroots and local fundraising we’ve done is one way to gauge support, but having an active and vibrant Friends group is another way. We currently have 188 members and room for more.
This year has been a particularly good one for the Friends. This past summer, we raised over $8,000 with our Peace, Love, and a New Library Festival and we picked up another $1,000 (and over 20 new members!) recently at Pioneer Days. We also launched a local author talk series that had 40 attendees this April. We couldn’t do all this without the hard work and enthusiasm of our volunteers, and we always need more willing volunteers and members.
And beyond knowing you’re helping the library, there’s an added incentive to join or renew now: if you’re one of the first 30 members to reply, you’ll receive a sweet prize — a free dessert from Farmer & the Deli, Garners, or Ozark Cafe, selected at random.
As for upcoming Friends events, mark your calendars for the following:
November 2, 5:30-7:00 pm, Berryville Library: officer election for 2024-2025 president, vice president, and secretary
November 4, 10:00-11:30 am, Berryville Community Center: our 2nd author talk, “Telling Your Story” with Dale Ross. I’ll be reviewing his book A Voice for Ira next week here on the blog.
November 12, 8 am-4 pm: CS Bank parking lot fundraiser in Eureka Springs during Porsche weekend
December 7, 4-6 pm, Community Room on the Square: Annual Gathering party and Book and Bake Sale Preview and Purchases
December 8, 9 am-4:30 pm, Community Room on the square: Bake and Book Sale
Please join or renew. Every little bit (from donations to volunteering to attending events) help us. And if you’re not local, ask around at your local library system if they have a Friends group you can join and volunteer for.
Nothing’s sweeter than being a Friend to your local library. Friends need libraries and libraries need Friends!
Berryville Book Buzz 