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Donation launches new library fund-raiser

By Debbie Gardner, PRIME Editor

HAMPDEN An endowment, a new fund-raiser, a call for help and an election . that seems like a lot for one meeting.

Not, apparently, if your organization is the Friends of the Hampden Free Public Library. This active group of volunteers, which kept the library in the public eye during its unprecedented closure from July 2005 to July 2006 by running monthly book swaps and hosting fund-raisers, is gearing up for another year of activities designed to boost the scope of this town resource.

The Friends hosted their Annual Meeting on June 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Hall. The public is was invited to come and hear about the results of this year's projects, as well as the Friends plans for future improvements at the Library.

Chief among this year's accomplishments is a $5,000 donation from the Friends to the Hampden Library Fund, held in trust at the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.

"The Friends are presenting a $5,000 check to match the $5,000 from the trustees of the Hampden Free Public Library," Friends President Patty Ehlers told Reminder Publications prior to the meeting. "Those funds will be there to benefit the [Library] in the future."

Ehlers said she hopes the trust will ensure the library never faces closure for lack of funding again.

But that donation is only a portion of the financial support the friends have provided since last July.

"Though the library is re-opened, it is still lacking 20 to 25 percent of its operating budget," Ehlers said. "The Friends have donated to the operating budget over $8,000 this year and we plan to do the same or more next year."



Mural fund-raiser planned

"It's just about a year since the library re-opened, and we're going to introduce a major fund-raising campaign for the library," Ehlers explained. "It's based on a mural of our town."

Ehlers said she had seen the work of artist Marion Grebow at a library convention. She has created tile-based town murals for other library fund-raisers, including a very successful campaign for Westport, Conn.

Ehlers said that for this fund-raiser, patrons will purchase tiles that will be used to create a mural of and about Hampden that will be displayed on the wall outside the library in Town Hall.

"She creates a mural of your town, it's history, who lived and lives there . it's gorgeous," Ehlers said.

She said that Grebow will create individual tiles for each supporter, based on their own design.

"It can be a family crest, a particular animal, an icon of the town, etc." she said.

Grebow had a display of her mural work in the Town Hall from 1:30 to 7 p.m. on last Tuesday. Anyone who missed the display can catch examples of Grebow's art at her Web site, www.grebowtiles.com.



Friends seek teens as advisors

Ehlers said another project on the Friend's agenda was the creation of a Teen Advisory Group as a subcommittee of the Friends.

"That's the one thing our library is lacking in, we do not have our teenagers. We don't have a program for them. It's so sad," Ehlers said.

She said the Friends are looking for high school volunteers to help the Friends develop programs for this age group. Kathy Mahoney, a teacher at Soule Road School in Wilbraham and a Hampden resident, has volunteered to be the adult advisor. She has a 12-year-old daughter.

"We are targeting high school students, but we're hoping they will help develop programs that will attract seventh and eighth graders, too," Ehlers said.