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JOURNEY THROUGH GRIEF
Monday, April 3rd (and the 1st Monday of the month thereafter)
6:30 p.m.
Library Meeting Room
This group will be led by Heartland Hospice Care. "Journey Through Grief" - A community support group for those experiencing grief, loss & bereavement, to process healthy grieving and mental and physical reactions to everyday loss.
ISLAND HOUSE READERS
Wednesday, April 5th
12 p.m.
Library Meeting Room
A traditional book club that meets on the 1st Wednesday of the month at noon at the Elk Rapids District Library. This month's selection is A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Bachman. Come join the group for a lively discussion!
STORYTIME WITH SUE & JACQUIE
Wednesdays (When school is in session)
10:30 a.m.
Library Meeting Room
Bring the kids for stories, music and a craft!
Poetry Reading with Robert Fanning
Sunday, April 30th
3:00 p.m.
Cellar 152
Celebrate National Poetry Month! Join us for a afternoon reading with Robert Fanning, award winning poet, and Creative Writing professor.
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April is National Poetry Month
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From the Director's Chair
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People are asking what is going on with the library expansion and improvement project. It's time for an update, but first a little history.
In the 1980's some citizens from Elk Rapids submitted an application to receive a State Historic Marker for the Island House and the Island. It was initially rejected, but then granted a few years later and the village purchased the historic marker that sits at the foot of the pedestrian bridge. The community is rightfully proud of its history and the historic structures that are still standing, so the library board decided they would not approve of any plans for expansion that would jeopardize the historic designation of the property. One of the main reasons Hopkins Burns Architects were hired is because of their historic preservation work. They have a 35 year history working with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and clearly outlined the process they would follow once we had defined our needs and come up with a preliminary scheme for expansion and renovation.
That entire process was undermined when a SHPO employee wrote a letter to a private Elk Rapids citizen saying if we added on to the building we would lose the historic marker. That letter was circulated anonymously, and published in the newspaper. The gentleman who wrote it had no basis for that opinion. He had not seen the drawings, he had not talked with our architects, he had not talked to us or the Village officials. Now his boss, while admitting the letter was "premature", is protecting his employee and trying to cover for his mistake. The project is stalled because SHPO has made it political.
If you know the value of a vibrant, thriving, responsive library to a community and want to help, let us know. Perhaps you could write a letter to SHPO urging them to give our project fair consideration. Perhaps you could write a letter to the Village Council telling them you are in favor of a bigger, better library. Maybe you could go to a Council meeting to speak up about the library and its importance.
When you build a better library you build a better community. When you build a better community you build a better world. And I think we can all agree a better world is a worthy goal.
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Membership Matters
“But . . I thought I WAS a member of the Friends of the Library. I already have a library card!!!”
The Friends hear that a lot, BUT there really IS a DIFFERENCE between having a library card and being a member of the Friends. As a Friend, you are MORE than a user, you are a CONTRIBUTOR who makes our library better for the whole community.
You can be both a library cardholder and a Friend. It is easy to become a Friend:
- Go to www.elkrapidslibrary/com.
- On the bar at the top right, click on ‘Friends of the Library’
- Under that click on Friends of the Library Home
- Scroll down the page to “Join the Friends”
- Below that click on the graphic
- Print off the form
- Fill out the form and send it with the $5.00 fee to the address given
Encourage others to become a Friend of the Library by sharing the information with them.
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"
~Helen Keller
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