Just where does the time go? The winter sped along and most items checked out today won’t be due back to the library until the end of March. In those three weeks, we will have had a women’s day celebration (March 8), Pi Day (March 14), a Spring Fling (March 19), a magic show (March 21), and celebrated Multicultural Month with a Cookies from Around the World event (March 22). Not to mention Spring Break, a change of time, and St. Patrick’s Day! And by then we’ll be headed toward Easter and .... drier weather too?
At the end of February, volunteers with Friends of the Hope Library worked hard at the Great Big Annual Book Sale, raising nearly $1,000 for the library. This group of dedicated volunteers deserve a big round of applause for all they do to support the library and its programs. All of us at the library would like to heartily thank the volunteers who helped as well as those people who supported the sale.
Leftover books will be donated locally, some will be turned into art at the Repurposing the Book event on International Women’s Day this Friday, and the rest will be shipped to Better World Books, an online bookselling organization whose profits go toward funding literacy programs.
With the proceeds of the book sale, we are considering purchasing a mobile book case to replace the current orange DVD/book sale case. The new unit would have casters and would be moveable if there’s a large crowd at a library event.
This mobile bookcase would have been handy to have had when we had the pleasure of hosting author W.P. Kinsella last month. Mr. Kinsella read two unpublished stories to a sizeable audience. A very successful event and we hope to see Mr. Kinsella return to do another author reading in the future!
Back to the future, this coming Spring Break, we’ve upped the number of programs we are offering. Unfortunately, the teen program has been cancelled but we have a talented entertainer – Joseph the Magician (appearing as if by magic!) on Thursday, March 21 at 11 a.m. and a Spring Fling in partnership with Hope & District Recreation & Cultural Services. Participants will decorate eggs and then devise a clever method of protecting their creation. The creator of the egg that survives intact wins!
All month long we are collecting international cookie recipes in celebration of Multicultural Month. On March 22 as part of Spring Break we will have tasty international cookie samples at the library from 2-4 p.m. Don’t have a cookie recipe to share? We have lots of cookie recipe books at FVRL – look for the call number 641.8654!
Wrapping up the month, photographer John Gordon (March 27) will be here to share his photographs of the United Kingdom. He was in Hope last March with his Grizzly Bears of the Khutzeymateen program.
Get your tickets for the Friends of the Library third annual Hope Library Quiz Night fundraiser in order to compete for the prestigious Hope Highbrow Award on Friday, April 5. This year’s theme is fitness and health. The award has been won by “The Quizards” two years in a row.
Deb’s Pick: Visitors to the library might notice a new display these days - Kristin, an avid reader, is keeping the “Staff Picks” shelf stocked with all our favourites, of which are available for taking home. On that shelf, is one of my current favourites: Emma Donoghue’s Astray. The author of Room has recently published a book of short stories based on small snippets of historical fact. Donoghue takes that historical morsel and works it into some tasty and entertaining fiction.