Rendition of new library

Rendition of new library
The New Point Roberts Library Out of the Old Julius Firehall

Monday, August 31, 2015

The Final Chapter

[This is also published in the September All Point Bulletin]

Here we are at the Final Chapter of Fundraising for the new library.  But first, a little catchup on where we’ve been the last few months.  

Back in February, our State Senator Doug Ericksen agreed to put the Point Roberts Library on his list of capital projects.  These are projects that, if they are included in the final state budget, are guaranteed a certain level of funding.  (We used to call them earmarks.)  But in the months-long process that is how the legislature now creates budgets, the new Point Roberts LIbrary fell off the list.  But we didn’t know that until July.  

Our funding goal is $538,000.  In July, we had $445,000; short by $93,000.  We put together the list of everyone who had previously given at least $1,000 and set about asking them whether they could possibly pledge an additional $1,000 by the end of this year.  Twenty-six people/families have said “yes!” as of August 15.  

We have also received other donations during this period, including a generous $2,000 gift from the new owners of the Marina.  They hope to follow-up on this gift in the fall.  What with Saturday Markets and used book sales and quilt raffle tickets, we are now in need of about $60,000.  

We know that everyone can’t make $1,000 donations.  YET, we need to get this fundraising done in 2015 so that construction can begin in the Spring of 2016.  We need to get this done because it’s time to get it done, for you and for us and for the library.  There are no more possibilities of foundation grants or state gifts: it’s simply up to us, to the caring members of the Point Roberts community.

And if you can’t donate a thousand dollars, can you please make a first or final contribution of whatever you can afford?  Between group and individual donations, we’ll be done in the next few months: we’ll have that $538,000 in the bank.  We can then close the book on the fundraising segment while the much more important history of the new library begins to arise before our eyes.  

We need a bigger library; the community and its friends have responded generously to this need over the past 3.5 years with over a thousand individual donations, so it’s clear that they want this to happen. We began with a belief that it takes a community to build a library.  We will be finishing knowing that the community has risen to the need.
---Judy Ross for the Friends of the Point Roberts Library


To Donate:  Make out checks to FOPRL (a tax-exempt organization) and leave at the library or mail to PO Box 970, PR., WA 98281

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Puppet Show, Saturday, 3 pm

Just a reminder that the P.R. Library and the Friends of the P.R. Library are sponsoring a live marionette theater performance this Saturday at the Community Center at 3 pm.  The "Welcome Marionettes" Company were here two summers ago and gave a wonderful performance of "The Wizard of Oz."  This year, it's Popeye and Olive Oyl and, I trust, Sweetpea, and all that gang from my childhood (and perhaps some of yours), who are just as endearing if you've never met them before.

This is a wonderful opportunity for kids to be exposed to live puppet theater, and to meet the people who give life to these charming creations.  Free for kids, free for grownups.  Please do come!

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Regarding the Recent All Point Bulletin Article on the Park and Rec Board Meeting

Meg Olson’s article on the recent two meetings of the Park and Recreation Board is a good report of what went on. [(http://www.allpointbulletin.com/2015/07/31/parks-board-backslides-on-library-commitment/ ] However, it may leave an impression that the new library project is in some kind of trouble.  It is not.  As of July 31, 2015, FOPRL has raised $465,000, $20,000 in the last 2 weeks alone.  We need to raise another $73,000 and expect to do so by the end of the year.

Last October, a new Memo of Understanding/MOU was negotiated among FOPRL, the Park and Recreation District, and the Whatcom County Library System.  In it, the Park and Recreation District made a legal commitment to try to close any funding gap to ensure that the new library is completed.

FOPRL will continue to raise funds. When we have $538,000 or see no possibility for further funds being raised, the ball is in the Park and Recreation District’s court: they can either bring the building in with the money that has been raised or they can try to raise additional funds. 


FOPRL continues fully to accept its responsibility to try to complete the fundraising goal of $538,000.  Support for this project is very broad with well over a thousand donors.  We thank every person, group, business, foundation and agency that has contributed their time, money, or goods to this project and we hope you will continue to help get this library built.

Judy Ross, Fundraising Chair