Standing Up Some More

We have, currently, 135 people who have contributed $20 each to the "Stand and Be Counted: $20 for the New Library" campaign.  Great, but not great enough, so we've talked to the donor who is providing the matching gift, and he is willing to continue it throughout the summer.  It's very good to have over $5,500 total from this effort over the past four weeks, but so much better to have a $40,000 total, which we would have from 1,000 such donation.

SO, if you haven't got yourself listed and with an "I Gave" button, the library and Sterling Bank are still the places to go.  Help make those numbers rise and help show that you support this new library!  We'll be at the Saturday Market beginning June 21, and you can get your buttons from us there, too.  As well as "Piece of the library" Prayer Flags.

What are our current total donations with their attached matching funds?  Just under $195,000.  Someone out there with a spare $5,000 just to get that total evened out nicely?  We're expecting our outdoor donation measuring device to be completed mid-June: you'll want to look for it in and on the front of the Julius Firehall.

Good News! And Money!

Several pieces of good news on the new library front:

1.  We have 95 people who have Stood and Been Counted!  (That's $1900 and then, doubled with the matching gift, it's $3,800.)  It's  still a long way from 1,000, but we are working to contact more people directly which is the way it most successfully happens.  We'll have someone at the used book and new plant sale this coming Saturday (18th May) at the Community Center (10-2) and hope to raise that number.  You, too, can help by encouraging friends and neighbors and even family to be sure to get to Sterling Bank or the library to make the donation, and then get the button.  Those who are away can mail a check (made out to FOPRL) and mail it to FOPRL, Box 970, PR, WA 98281 and we'll put an "I Gave" button on reserve for them for when they do get back to the Point.

One person wrote me that, upon hearing of the need for more $20's, she had written her sisters-in-law and her adult children, urging them to get the money to her and she would collect their buttons for them.  That's participation!  Twenty for a library is so little for so much!

2.  The past two weeks, in addition to the $3,800 from the Stand and Be Counted event, we have received a generous $3,000 donation from a local resident, and a $10,000 donation from Westshore Terminals.  All $10,000 donations will be doubled (up to $100,000) and this is our fifth such donation this year.  Sooo, in a very short space of time, our donation totals are up almost $27,000, to an overall total of $194,000.  The $10,000 donations do not need to be from individuals, but could be from a group (homeowners association? extended family? community organization?) and can include previous donations (although only new money is matched).  Thus, if someone/some group previously gave $5,000 and now gave another $5,000, the new $5,000 would be matched and the giver would be included in the Founders' Circle for permanent recognition.

3.  We are nearing the end of the raffle ticket sales for the "Improvisations in Red" quilt.  We are selling only 40 tickets total on this exotic quilt and there are currently only 10 tickets left.  We'll be doing the drawing by the end of the month in any case.  The quilt (for your viewing pleasure) will be on display at the Community Center this Saturday during the used book sale (10-2) and tickets will be available.  Tickets are $25.  It's a one-of-a-kind piece.

4.  In June, we'll be working on "Piece" of the Library Prayer Flags.  You can get a flag for a $5 donation ($2 for kids 12 and under), you can decorate it and then sign your name on it, and we will display them all throughout the summer on the big wall of the soon-to-be new library.  Fly high those flags!  Many of them!

5.  If you have any questions about any of this, write me at judyross@outlook.com.

Happy late spring early summer to you all,
Judy Ross
for The Friends of the Point Roberts Library

Standing Up, Giving $20 to the Library

We may not have been clear enough about why getting 1,000 people to join in this event is very important.  Obviously, with the matching fund, it would mean a lot of money: $40,000, which is more than we've ever received in a single month.  But perhaps an even bigger reason is that the foundations and government agencies that we need to go to next year for the last part of our funding want to hear that the community we represent is behind this project.  They don't want to hear that 100 people are very enthusiastic about it: they want to hear that the majority of people in Point Roberts are supportive.  After all, if WE don't support it, why should they?

By focusing on giving $20, the fundraising committee wanted to find an amount that would be easy for almost everybody to contribute: if it was the only contribution that they made to the library, it would be an actual contribution and it would have their name attached to it in the donation book...Which would be a way of documenting the extent of community support.

Right now, May 13, only 65 people have made a contribution.  We are very grateful to every one of them but it is a long way from 1,000.  So, if you haven't been counted, we hope you will seriously consider making the effort to go to the library or to Sterling Bank in the next few weeks and making this $20 contribution so we know and the people/institutions/agencies who can help us most in raising very large donations at the end of this fundraising will know that Point Roberts supports a new library for all of us, for our children, and for all those who will come after us.  A library isn't a luxury: it's essential.  Maybe not for every individual, but for your friends, your neighbors, the children who live here.  For the people who make Point Roberts what it is.  And what it is is the place that we have all chosen to live.

Thanks.  From The Friends of the Point Roberts Library

(If you want to contribute and your not down here on the Point this month, please mail a check for $20, made out to FOPRL.  Our address is FOPRL, P.O. Box 970, P.R., WA 98281.  We'll arrange for you to pick up a button later when you are here.)

Time to Stand and Be Counted

This month, we're asking everyone in Point Roberts to drop into Sterling Bank or the library and donate $20 each for the new library.  We'll match every $20 donation with a matching gift, and if 1,000 people do this, we'll have $40,000 at the end of the month.  Everyone who donates will have his or her name recorded in the official donation book, so be sure to leave your name with your $20.

In the first few days, we have received $600, which doubles to $1,200.  Thanks to Sharon Niles, Bunny Miekle and Alex Benekretis for being the first three donors at Sterling Bank!  But we've got a ways to go to get 1,000 donors and only 26 more days to do it.  We'll let you know how our residents are doing, but the numbers will be better if everyone donates.  It's a small amount for a big gift.  It's OUR library so we all need to support it.

Another Gas Station Comes Forward!

The owner of the Chevron and the Texaco gas stations has contributed $1000 plus $1000 worth of gas gift cards, the latter of which we can convert into $1,000 cash, for a $2,000 donation.  For the new library.  That's three of the five gas stations that have now made a contribution.  And a fourth (the Shell station owner) has an appointment with us this month to talk about support.  Only one, the USA, remains unheard from.  But there's time yet.  This gets us up to about $165,000 in donations.  We are pretty pleased.

This is a library for and by everybody!