The Willow Glen Resident Local Color: This photograph of the Willow Glen Basket Factory, taken in the late 1800s, adorns cards being sold to benefit the Willow Glen Branch Library. Friends plan addition for library annex in memory of deceased business leader Historical cards will help the Helen Owen Memorial pay for a new patio By Cecily Barnes After the 1993 death of Helen Owen, who served as the business manger of the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association for eight years, some of her friends established a memorial fund in her honor. That fund has since purchased more than 331 new children's books from local bookstores and donated them to the Willow Glen Branch Library. Inside these books, a white rabbit is pictured leaping over the words, In Memory of Helen Clair Owen. "We decided on children's books because Helen loved to read, she loved children's books and she loved children," Owen's friend Mimi Brutes told the Willow Glen Resident last year. This year, the Helen Owen Memorial will contribute something more than new books. Pending approval by library administrators, the Willow Glen Beautification Project plans to commission an artist to build an extension of the library's outdoor patio, again recognizing Owen's love of both books and children. "It will be a ceramic tile project created from children's artwork through stories that they have heard through the library," Mason says. "An artist will take the children's artwork and turn it into tile." Helen Owen's friends also came up with a novel way to drum up some more funding for the project. In mid-December, the Beautification Project received hundreds of beige cards that have since been placed in shops along Lincoln Avenue. The cards, offered as a keepsake for Willow Glen residents, display historical photographs of the Willow Glen Basket Factory and the old Willow Glen Elementary School. They are blank on the inside and come paired with a matching envelope. "Willow Glen residents can now show off their unique community through these historical cards," says Beautification Project chairperson Kitty Mason. "We got them out in time for Christmas but they're really for all year long." Proceeds from the card sales will go toward subsidizing the library patio project. Willow Glen's head librarian, Maurice Stevenson, says he is just learning about the project but thinks it could spice up the outdoor patio. "The patio area doesn't really have much decoration so this certainly is an opportunity to create a little more interest out there," Stevenson says. "I guess it's going to involve kids creating animals, and that certainly sounds appropriate." According to Mason, the project will cost between $3,000 and $4,000. She hopes more merchants will stock their shelves with the historical cards to help raise the money. Shops that currently carry the cards include Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company, Alta, Willow Glen Books, Park Place, Rosemill, Excel Printing and Phoenix Art Gallery. Merchants interested in offering the cards should contact Kitty Mason at 297-4316. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, January 6, 1999. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.