Best of Friends Friends of the Durham Library Newsletter
Fall 2008
Friends say “Thank You” at Annual Meeting and Shed–Raising
T
he Friends’ annual meeting on June 11 was hardly business-as-usual. Instead, the Friends used the occasion as an opportunity to thank the many individuals who contributed their time, energy, commitment and financial resources to recover from the fire in the Friends’ storage shed in March 2007. Four individuals received special recognition for their dedicated assistance to the Mike Turner, Charles Nickelson, Glenn Parks and Dan Jewell display their certificates of Friends membership. Friends: honorees Mike Turner, Director of General Services for Durham County, Dan Jewell of Coulter Jewell Thames PA, and Charles Nickelson and Glenn Parks of Roughton Nickelson De Luca Architects, PA were each presented with a framed certificate of Friends membership. The successful installation of the shed was attributable to a host of dedicated people, but the organizations represented by the four honorees provided extraordinary support. The architectural firms of Coulter Jewell Thames and Roughton Nickelson De Luca provided pro bono architecture and landscape architecture services. Mike Turner, Ronnie Butler and the General Services team of Durham County provided constant and above-and-beyond maintenance and support during the long year between the fire and the unveiling of the new shed. Before the meeting adjourned, the new spacious and attractive storage shed made its debut, and book sale co-chairs Jane Goodridge and Carol Ann Walters, happily performed the ceremonial ribbon cutting. Friends leadership expressed gratitude for all of the people who helped recover from the fire and who generated the support needed to acquire the new and improved shed.
Jane Goodridge and Carol Ann Walters cut the ribbon on the new shed.
Library Rises to NEH Challenge
W
ith the help of the Foundation, Friends, staff and the people of Durham County, the library met a January 31, 2008 deadline and raised more than $1.5 million to meet the National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant of $500,000. To meet the NEH Challenge Grant, the library had to reach an ambitious goal – raising three dollars for every one dollar of the $500,000 grant. This goal would not have been attainable without the support of corporations like GlaxoSmithKline. With its gift of $800,000, GSK became the largest private donor ever to the Durham County Library. Another major factor in making the match was the additional support the community gave by participating in Friends of the Durham Library book sales and purchasing memberships to the organization. “Because of the success of our book sales and the support of our new and renewing members, the Friends were able to give more than $100,000 to the library to help meet the challenge grant,” said Jeff Laufenberg, former president of the Friends’ Board of Directors. “The people in our community really understand that their support is the difference between a good library and a great library.”