It’s that time of year again for our annual Everything Chocolate Sale on Tuesday, February 14th! Get something sweet for your sweetie!
The sale starts at 9 am and goes until we’re sold out. If you are interested in helping, we’re looking for bakers of all kinds and ask that you make anything chocolate – brownies, cookies, cakes, pies, you name it! We also need volunteers to help with the sale on Tuesday. If you’re interested in volunteering, contact me at the library.
This is one of our biggest fundraisers for our Friends of the Chanute Library group, which helps and supports the library and our programs. We will also have our Annual FOCL meeting on Thursday, February 23rd at 5:30 pm.
For those who don’t know about FOCL, they are a volunteer group dedicated to helping the library with programs and projects. Last year, FOCL sponsored a month of our Litwits books, summer reading prizes for kids, and Oktoberfest. Members also volunteered to help with monthly kids programs, summer reading programs, and baked cookies and treats.
FOCL also sponsors the Barb Keller grants, which are given to teachers in the USD 413 school district for projects promoting literacy and reading. Last year’s awardees were Bailey Willard, Kathi Emling, and Jeff Schoenberger. We are excited to see our educators make a difference in the lives of our young readers in our community!
In addition to helping with programs, FOCL sponsors special projects at the library. Last year, they bought new folding chairs for our conference room and contributed to improving our security camera system. Previous projects included renovating our men’s downstairs bathroom and installing automatic door openers on our upstairs and downstairs doors.We are so thankful for our wonderful volunteers and FOCL board who helped make our library so successful!
This year, FOCL is waiving the membership fees, so it’s free to join! Members of all ages will be added to an email list and will be the first notified of upcoming volunteer opportunities. There are many ways you can volunteer at the library, from helping with kids or adult programs, to bringing treats and goodies for programs, to helping with fundraising events like the Chocolate Sale or the Artist Alley Book Sale.
Of course, if you are not a member, another way to support us is to visit the library, attend a program, or check out a book! We hope to see everyone at the Chocolate Sale on Tuesday, February 14th or at the Annual Meeting on Thursday, February 23rd.
Here are some upcoming new releases in February: Exiles by Jane Harper, Someone Else’s Shoes by JoJo Moyes, Encore in Death by J.D. Robb, Walk the Blue Line by James Patterson, Better the Blood by Michael Bennett, The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson, and Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall.