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Date: 4/5/2022
HOLYOKE – After a COVID-19-related hiatus, the Holyoke Public Library will host Mini Golf and Games at the Library on Saturday, April 9 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The community event and fundraiser welcome all ages to come and play a round of mini golf throughout the halls of the public library for a small fee that will go towards improvements at the library. Ages 13 and up will be charged $5 to play, ages 5 to 12 will be charged a discounted rate of $3, and children under 5 years old play for free.
To be mindful of COVID-19 and social distancing, you can go to holyokelibrary.org to sign up and reserve the start time for your family or group.
In addition to the mini golf fun, there will also be a Human Foosball Tournament in the library park starting at 10:30 a.m. and running until 3 p.m. Teams of six can pre-register for $30 per team at holyokelibrary.org or contact Nayroby Rosa-Soriano via text message to the number listed on the site.
The event will include food truck services from Fritura Latina and CRAVE from 12 to 3 p.m. Spradley Deluxe Coffee will also be served free in the morning while supplies last. Volunteers are welcomed and asked to sign up by emailing friendsofthehpl@gmail.com or by contacting Nancy Kocsmiersky at the library.
The first mini golf fundraising event hosted by the library came in April 2016 and saw people of all ages playing the 18-hole course inside the library. That event raised over $6,000 and started the yearly community event that the library calls “an Annual Fun raiser and Fundraiser.”
Major funding for the event comes from local businesses and donors that sponsor each hole on the course. Funds raised through ticket sales and sponsorships as well as an evening party and auction help enhance library programing and services, especially for teens and children.
The Friends of the Holyoke Public Library is an informal organization that helps support the library and started this fundraising event in 2016. They aim to create activities that bring people to the library while also serving as friendly ambassadors and advocates for the public space.
While the event has continued, the fundraiser is now run by the library with assistance from Friends volunteers. Sandy Ward, a longtime resident who volunteers with the Friends of the Holyoke Public Library and is on the planning committee for the mini golf fundraiser, says the money raised goes to support whichever library program currently needs funding support.
“We go to the library board and the library director and ask what is the target for fundraising? It’s always for programming, but we sometimes say it is for the summer reading program but have also put it towards bringing in workshops with Holyoke Codes that teach young kids coding and other robotic stuff,” Ward said.
She added the emphasis of the money raised is particularly aimed at the children’s room and the teen or youth rooms. The money raised looks to be an addition to these different programs and not totally funding them.
Ward added that compared to normal fundraisers where people who enjoy the library get together for a cocktail party, this fundraiser is directly in the library and is involving families and young children.
“This is so much more related to the mission of the library than the other kinds of fundraisers that groups typically do,” Ward said. “We raised the just about the same amount in our first year than we had raised in the previous year from the more boring, outside the library fundraiser. We said this is a keeper, we’ll do it again.”
Ward encourages people to sign up online to book a tee time to help the library have some control over the pacing of groups throughout the library to be respectful of social distancing.
She added equipment will be cleaned in between uses as well as they return from a two-year hiatus.