Stop and Start!

No, that's not what a $20,000 match to a $20,000 matching fund looks like.  That's what a 30-year collection of change (and a few bills) found by Ed Park and Judy Ross on streets and roads and sidewalks and stores in two countries/two states and one province looks like.  The pig is giving it all up, starting September 2, for "Great Change Month."

Sponsored by Sterling Bank, this event places change jars all over Point Roberts (The Chandlery, the library, Auntie Pam's, Neilsen's Hardware, the Blue Heron, Larry's Liquor Store, TSB Shipping, International Marketplace, and Sterling Bank itself).  You bring your boxes, jars, banks, pocketsful, baggies, purses,  whatever, filled with U.S. or Canadian change and empty them into the jars.

The Fundraising Committee members will regularly collect the change and bring it to Sterling Bank where members of their staff will separate it, roll it, count it, and deposit it into the library fund account.  And, by September 30, "Great Change Month" will have tidied up your drawers and the like and brought us all another step closer to a new library.

So, leave your change in any of the places it is convenient for you to do so.  But if you drop it off at Sterling Bank, the pig will be there to say, "Thanks."  Do you think it looks any thinner without all those coins?

We'll update the amount of change gathered regularly here on the blog and on the APB FOPRL Community Page and on our Facebook Page: Friends of the Point Robert Library page (not group).  Help us make this a Really Great Change Month!

Dreams Can Come True. . .

Today I had lunch with a friend on the back deck at Brewsters. The shade was a bit cool, the sun was a bit warm - Autumn is in the air. I have this day dream about sitting on the back deck of the new library in the last sunny days of summer, with a new book and a latte. Libraries aren't what they used to be when I was a kid. Now they are a place to gather, to listen to speakers, to sit in a comfortable chair with a book or an iPod and enjoy a relatively quiet space. The new space will have room for all of these things. I am so looking forward to my day dream becoming a reality and I have made my donation to hurry the process along. Have you made your donation or pledge yet? It is going to take the whole community to build this library. Please take time to write your check today.  Thank you and happy reading!

FOPRL at the Market

A quick update for all of those who brought produce to the Saturday Market yesterday for the benefit of the Library Building Fund.  Heidi Baxter did a terrific job (as Theresa did two weeks ago) in taking on this task.  She spread her table with lots of herbs, flowers, chard, plums, beans, beets, potatoes, zucchini and apples (and probably some other edibles I've lost track of), let the buyers decide what was a fair donation for the library, and quickly sold out, garnering another $135.00 for the building fund.

This surely could be a repeat performance, except that August 25 was the last Saturday Market for the year.  But, maybe next year.  It is certainly the case that many people have extras from their gardens and don't necessarily have a way to spread that excess around.

Fruits of the Season

The Saturday Night movie at Brewsters attracted the largest number of viewers this summer: it couldn't have been a nicer night with the Perseid meteor shower sparkling through the night sky.  However, despite original plans, that will be the final movie of the summer.  Maybe meet you there next year?

An update on the Saturday Market:  Local produce has been a little scarce at the market this summer.  Last Saturday, Therese Bagshaw made a bold move.  She invited local residents (via Point Interface) to bring their own overflow produce to the market where she (Therese) would sell it and give the proceeds to the New Library Building Fund.

And people did indeed respond both givers and buyers: Therese gave the Fund $100 at the end of the day, largely derived from the transparent apples and plums (greengages and santa rosas) and chard that were brought and then bought, all of which appear to be abundant.  She divided the gifts into small paper bags and sold them for $2.00 each, I think.  What a good deed!

Unfortunately, she is not going to be able to repeat this at the final Saturday Market (the 25th).  So if anyone out there would like to slide into that slot, the FOPRL will be happy to do some produce-raising publicity for you.  Contact us at foprl1@gmail.com  (notice: that is a lower-case 'l' followed by the numeral 1).

Correction: August 18 is the joke-telling contest at the Community Center.  That would be Saturday night not Sunday night as I erroneously said in the last post.

We Are Getting There

Now we are at $40,000 or even more because one of the committee members brought by a thousand dollar check last night, and another thousand dollar check was delivered this morning.  And the two donations when matched--as they are--mean another four thousand dollars.

Thus, it looks like we have a very good chance of matching all the $20,000 gift by the end of the month.  A week Sunday (18th), Davea Fischer is presenting the regular joke-telling contest at the Community Center as a library benefit; there's a movie at Brewster's tonight and another in two weeks; there's another Saturday market day (25th) with quilted bookmarks and bracelets, as well as knit scarves and hats and socks.  More chances to help the new library into existence.

Everyone a Winner

Two little girls from Texas, on vacation in Point Roberts this past week, decided to set up a little lemonade stand by the side of the road.  That's not a bad idea given the number of Canadian visitors we had over the B.C. Day weekend.  Up by my house, the walkers and bicyclers and joggers and cars(!) were legion and the heat was such that a little lemonade would have been a welcome treat.

So, they provided comfort to the overheated and then, at the end of the day, they offered comfort to the fund raisers by giving their profits to the new library.  Well, no surprise, in a way: Irene Waters great-granddaughters.  Runs in the family, I guess.

Winning the TV IS...

The weekend Arts and Music Festival was pretty well attended from my perspective and I asked a few people who had been regular attenders in the past and their view was that it was better than average.  Certainly the weather for the weekend was way better than average.  It was a little too warm inland, but at the beach with a fairly steady light breeze it was the dreams of summer come true.

The Friends of the Library were there with a table and the community--summer residents, summer visitors and full-time residents--supported the library building fund with $1,500+ of donations, all of which will be matched by the $20,000 matching gift that we have going through the end of August.  We sold some of the Point Roberts Postcard Quilts, and rewarded donators with quilted bookmarks for donations, and offered raffle tickets on the big flat-screen TV.  The last was won by Ken Spencer, who is a summer P.R. resident and a full-time Vancouver resident.  Our thanks to everyone who came by and talked to us about the library, who donated or bought or took a chance on the raffle, or whatever they did to support this project that is, ultimately, for all of us.  Something new for Point Roberts; it's about time for a new library!

The matching grant: still on for 3 more weeks.  If we don't match the remaining $8,000 or so, it will go away.  Please help!

Saturday Quilts and TV Raffles

These will both take place at the Arts and Music Festival in Point Roberts on Saturday and Sunday.  Raffle tickets for the 32" flatscreen TV (HDF, all that stuff) are $10 each or 3/$25.  The in-the-box, brand new TV was donated to the Library Building Fund.

Also at the Festival, five "Somewhere in Point Roberts Postcard Quilts" donated to the Building Fund.  These are Point Roberts portraits, based upon the postcard photos by Ed Park.  Above: quilt #5.  You can see them all here.  Bring your checkbook as we don't have credit card machines.