Community generosity shows up for Weiser Public Library

Bidders and donors at this month’s Friends of the Library Flock to the Library fundraiser outdid themselves, raising over $7,100 that will feed into a multitude of programs at the Weiser Public Library.

 Head librarian Timbra Long reported the highest selling, uniquely designed birdhouse went for $240, a Wolverine themed piece of art designed by Lori Mooney. The second highest sold for $230, a stained glass birdhouse with a dragonfly and hummingbird on it.

 “In the silent auction, the Cookie of the Month went for $275, and the birdhouse with candles and garland around the side went for $260,” Long said. “The last time we had an auction, the cookies went for quite a nice price, also. Those seem to be a favorite of people.”

 Long said through their fundraising, the Friends of the Library fund all of the programming at the library.

 “STEM, art, summer programming, our book clubs, all of that and more,” she said. “Our kids storytime, crafts and snacks.”

 Long said the Friends auctions are a biennial production, but they also participate in the online Idaho Gives program, which donors will want to mark their calendars for April 28 through May 1 this spring.

 “They also help the library put together our monthly raffle baskets, and all of the money goes to them. Right now we have an herb box being raffled and put together by sisters, Joyce Taylor and Grace Sharp,” she said. “And, the quilt raffle we do every now and then. In turn, they help me. They give me $300 per month to replace any book series that needs to be filled in, and we just ask our patrons to let us know if they see a series that’s missing a book.

 “They bought us a Cricut last year for making signage for our programming, our Fiddle and Christmas parade floats, and they helped us with our summer movies last year,” Long added. “If we have enough money we’ll try to do that this year, because we had so much fun with them. It’s so important this year because I won’t be getting any state or federal grants, so my summer funding is zilch right now. There just aren’t any grants to apply for. The Friends will help pick up the slack.”

 She did say a recent LOR Foundation grant is providing five new patron computers, and soon they’ll be able to check out DVD players with a screen.. 

 “We’re getting four of those,” Long said. “A lot of people don’t have DVD players anymore, but streaming systems are getting too expensive, so we’ll be able to rent them a DVD player and movies for three days.”

 Long said the Friends of the Library meet at 10 a.m. on the first Wednesday of every month, and newcomers are always welcome.

 Monthly patron visits to the library have run into the thousands, with 3,933 books checked out and 3,347 people through the doors during the short month of February. 

 “The library meeting room was used 27 out of 28 days last month,” Long said. “Sometimes three to four times a day. Storytime had 45 kids and 30 adults last week. That’s every Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m., newborns to five or six years. We have four readers who rotate through each month, Holly Davies, Barb Huck, Patti Miller, and Janae Hansen. They are amazing readers.”

 Friends also have helped to sponsor computer class leader, Herbert Miller. 

 “We got a LOR grant, too, to help him finish the rest of the year, so he’ll be here every Monday and Thursday,” Long said. “He serves 8-12  every session, and that’s twice a week.”

 The Fit and Fall classes in the library’s meeting room have gone to three mornings a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting at 7 a.m.

 With spring break this week, Long said they will be showing a movie, “The Wild Robot,” on Friday, March 28, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 “Our ‘Let’s Talk About It’ night that was canceled in February has been rescheduled to April 1,” she said. “A professor from CSI will be here to discuss Ivan Doig’s This House of Sky.”