Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Making Book:Lynn Vose, a Friends of the Willow Glen Library volunteer, spends the afternoon at the library sorting donated books.
Friends are in need at Willow Glen's library
The volunteer group's core membership is in a serious decline
By Jessica Lyons
Senior librarian Maurice Stevenson points to the patio behind the Willow Glen library. Three wooden benches face a white table and three chairs. A huge oak tree shades the benches, providing a quiet canopy for a summer read.
"This was just dirt before," he says. "It wasn't very attractive and it wasn't inviting."
Before the Friends of the Willow Glen Library, that is. In 1996, the non profit group renovated the patio, planting bushes, pouring a cement walkway and beautifying the area around the oak tree. Each year, the Friends raise between $8,000 and $10,000 exclusively for the branch library. But now, after more than a decade, they may need some friends of their own.
The group's dedicated volunteer core has been steadily declining over the past year. Unless the Friends find some new blood, say board members, they will be forced to disband.
"What has happened, we had a very strong core of board members who have devoted a lot of hours, and one of our members died, some are in ill health and some have new jobs and new responsibilities," says Janice Santos, co-chair of the Friends.
"We operate 100 percent on volunteer work. Our volunteer membership is around 30 people right now, and we need at least 30 to run the book and bake sales. So if those 30 people aren't willing to do it, we're scrambling."
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Getting Frescoed: Taylor Rusconi, 4, and Burree Cowherd, 8, work on artist Nina Koepcke's ceramic mural project, which will be an extension to the patio outside the children's reading room at the Willow Glen Library.
Raising funds primarily through book and bake sales, the Friends allocate money for children's programs, authors' readings and various library projects, such as the patio. They also buy new books, magazines, videos and CDs, and miscellaneous items including blinds, a color computer printer, curtains, puppets and a PA system for the Willow Glen branch.
"They make some things possible that might not otherwise be possible," Stevenson says. "It's not that the city doesn't provide a budget for us, they do. The Friends just make everything a little bit better."
The Friends also provide the manpower for extra projects, such as setting up and breaking down the book and bake sales, sorting donated books, stacking the for-sale shelves and storing the rest in the library's sheds in the back.
"We've gotten books with bacon used as bookmarks--obviously that was not a book we kept--but we've also had $20 bills used as bookmarks," Santos says.
The pricier bookmarks stay with the branch, of course.
To volunteer, contact the following people: for board member positions, Bea Gifford at 224-0439; for book sale positions, Janice Santos at 295-5906; and for bake sale positions, Jenny Verdonk, 267-7279.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
