Lesson #23 Volunteering Saving the Local Library and Celebrating our Library!

Recently our public library came under attack by a group of conservative Tea-Partiers. There was the possibility with enough signatures for their petition that our main library and all other five branches would close until the current debt (including a beautiful new facility in our downtown area) was paid off and a new library board was created. . The problem that this group has is that they say the library tax is "taxation without representation". The library board is made up of a group of five individuals who are not politicians in anyway and do their good service for free, lastly they are approved by the fiscal court. The taxation in question was an increase of 6.3cents per 100$ of property owed (or 63$ per 100,000$ of property) to 6.4cents or 64$ per 100,000$ worth of property. Yes I am talking about 1$. I must add that no wrong doing had taken place. No mis-use of funds, laundering, ethical issues, ect. to bring about this petition, and our library tax rate is one of the lowest in the state!

I am not going to get into the rest of the politics of this issue. The results are more important to me. The feelings felt by most of the community was shock, disbelief, and an outflow of love and support for our public library system. We have a great library. Full of free activities and help for all walks of life. Full of employees who care, quiet places to sit to read and learn, and volunteer opportunity. I really could talk about our library for quite sometime. Personally, for Evie and I, time spent there are some of Evie's first memories. If you asked my daughter where she loved to go, where she felt comfortable, where she felt safe, she would answer, "the library". That would be one of her answers when she was 5yrs old, and that would be one of her answers today. The thought that someone could take away her special place over a few dollars is appalling to say the least.

Evie has been volunteering for the children's department of the library since she was 11yrs. old. The pictures below are of her and the head children's librarian in front of the "Fat Albert Christmas Tree". The Fat Albert Tree symbolizes the need for trees and shrubs in urban areas. On this day Evie volunteered to help decorate our fabulous children's garden for Christmas. She helped in the garden and helped other kids make ornaments for the tree. We also had a Celebration Rally to celebrate the termination of the petition that could have closed the library. The pic of the kids in front of the indoor Christmas tree is a pic of some of the kids at the rally. Since we have a screen printing business we donated 100 I Love My Library t-shirts. I am not "tooting my own horn" here, I just think it is important to teach your children to give where YOU can. We love our Public Library!