If you haven’t purchased you ticket for our second annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner and auction, it’s time! You’ll save $5 on admission at the door, you can bank on an outstanding feast that celebrates our Irish heritage and enjoy an auction that includes a variety of locally-sourced baskets and antiques. My wife Jennie will be entertaining us with her fiddle, and we look forward to serving the community for this important event.
We now have $1.3 million in gifts and pledges, and the St. Patrick’s Day dinner and auction will bring us closer to our $2.9 million goal. We had two other big recent fundraising wins. We won two America’s Farmers Grow Communities grants from Monsanto totaling $5,000. Special thanks to the area farmers who made that possible. Last week, out of 241 entries representing 32 area nonprofit organizations, the Creston Library Foundation won an SCICF drawing for $1,000. Phyllis Keller submitted our winning entry, so please thank her for helping to make Gibson Memorial Library a better place.
Our programs get positive community attention, and 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, we have a great one! John D. Walters will be at the library to talk about his recent publication, “Creston Wrestling History: 57 Years.” Sports fans, and past, present, and future wrestlers won’t want to miss this. My sense is this event will be well-attended, so come early for a seat.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, March 9, Jennie Hargrove will lead our Instant Pot Boot Camp, at which she will prepare some tasty fare and dish up general hints and advice on how to get the most out of your Instant Pots. I can attest that they enable consumers to save significant prep time for many types of meals without sacrificing quality outcomes. I hope you’ll agree that Jennie is very knowledgeable on all family and consumer science topics, and I’m grateful that she’s willing to share her Saturday with us. Registration is down to nine spots, so don’t wait to call or come in and sign up. I’m also looking forward to bringing out daughter, Reba, that afternoon, so that I can again show her the library where her father proudly works. Reba loves libraries!
Come by the library to view the baskets we already have prepared for the St. Patrick’s Day dinner and auction. I’m preparing a Creston history basket with an album of vintage postcards and several books about Creston and the Blue Grass Palace. In the days before the Saturday, March 16 event, we’ll be adding baskets and antiques that will generate interest, and of course, tickets are also available.
Before concluding, I’ll mention we have a great schedule of programs for National Library Week, which is April 8-13. That Monday evening, I’ll give a talk on “Sesquicentennial Sources: a Bibliographic History of Creston, Iowa.” I’ll summarize what, in my humble opinion, are the most informative publications on Creston’s history.
At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, Iowa historian Linda McCann will visit the library to discuss her new book about WWII prisoners of war in Iowa.
To conclude, I urge you to get behind our efforts to transform the Creston public library into a comfortable and inviting space capable of hosting children’s programs and small and large public meetings. We also need room for our books and materials. If we want to retain and attract young adults, also known as “millennials,” in the Creston area, we need an attractive library and cultural center that is a hub of community activity. Such a facility is critically needed for building a vibrant workforce and insuring our citizens are connected with the world and what they need for a good quality of life. We are resolved to be an anchor institution that meets those needs in Uptown Creston and Union County. Won’t you help us spread the word, and get the job done?