Book Sale 2010

Well, the numbers are in on this year's book sale, held last week during "Crazy Days." According to Friends of the Chippewa Falls Library treasurer Carl Miller, the Friends cleared just over $1850.00. This is down a bit from past years, but, still, not bad! And, the Junior Friends of the Library did brisk business with their bake sale, too, though I'm not sure just HOW brisk.

The Friends of the Library uses the money to support our efforts here at the Chippewa Falls Public Library, paying for things like speaker's fees, new equipment and possible minor improvements. If you like the idea of helping the library out in a real way that isn't terribly taxing on your time, consider joining. You can pick up a membership packet at the libray. And, it's a 501(c)3 organization, so donations to the Friends are tax-deductible.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, some pictures from the sale:

ABOVE: Library/City Hall/Police Department/snow plow driver/busiest-man-in-the-downtown-area Randy Bilderback pulls up with yet another load of sale books.

ABOVE: Junior Friends of the library show the come-hither looks that equal sales.

ABOVE: Library Board President Robert Hoekstra and Friends of the Library Member Gordon Kauffman sort and stack sale books.

ABOVE: "Better Books" wait to be sold in climate-controlled conditions.

See you next year!

Scrabbling To Keep Up--2010

Well, the other night your intrepid library director was invited to participate in the Chippewa Valley Literacy Volunteers' Scrabble tournament.

The team was made up of me, Carol Peterson of Friends of the Chippewa Falls Public Library, Library Board members Connie Russel, Linda Nebelsiek and Robert Hoekstra as well as Mary Ann King of the Chippewa County Board. The table was sponsored by the Friends of the Library, and we were given $50.00 by an anonymous donor to buy more tiles as we needed them. A formidable team, I'd say.

Well, cutting right to the chase, we didn't win. Unless you don't look up what I'm writing to confirm this, in which case we dominated the room like Sonny Liston in a bad mood.

All in all, it was a good time for a good cause and Ms. Nebelsiek even went home with a south-of-the-border themed prize bucket full of tortillas and maragarita mix after she won a drawing. So, we felt consolated.

Our "word waitress," Libby, kept the ball rolling even at those times in which we became sidetracked, which wasn't hard as we were fed free pizza until we were full. Or, at least, I was.

And I couldn't help but feel that someone coming over to our table to thank us for letting the literacy volunteers use the library as a place to tutor--as if we'd ever refuse such an endeavor--was a real touch of class.

This is the kind of thing I like, and I'm glad we did it. The picture above, by the way, is an actual image from the tournament.