February 2021
Dear Community,
In my last letter, I took a moment to thank our Library staff for their hard work over the past year. Our success is also thanks to the support of our two non-profit organizations: The Friends of the Library and The Library Foundation.
The Friends and the Foundation champion the Library in different ways and they have both made significant contributions to our organization during the pandemic. Your support of these two organizations means direct assistance to the Library.
The Friends of the Library partially finance our delivery service, the popular take-and-go craft kits, and pay for most of our speakers and program supplies. In 2021, the Friends approved a budget of over $100,000 to support Library programs, staff development, home delivery, and other supplies and services.
The Library Foundation invests funds into the library’s collection of materials, allowing us to continue curating a catalog that meets our community’s needs. The Foundation is also preparing to take on a construction project at the Corvallis Library that will allow our space to grow and further serve our users. Having the Foundation by our side to help us complete capital projects makes us extremely fortunate, and you’ll be hearing more about this construction project in the next letter!
I remain incredibly thankful for the Friends, the Foundation and especially all of our generous donors. The community support we have received from all of you continues to keep us encouraged. Thank you to those of you who have sent in thank-you notes, called with compliments, or dropped words of kudos in your returned items. We celebrate these words of gratitude each day.
The support of the Corvallis and Benton County community is unparalleled. I have worked in many libraries, but never experienced such amazing advocacy and appreciation. Thank you!
Best,
Ashlee
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