Counting our blessings
(For publication in the Frankenmuth News, Nov. 25, 2020, by Roz Weedman.)
While the big feast with generations of family and friends may have to wait a year, the essence of Thanksgiving remains gratitude. Perhaps during times of stress especially, thinking through what we are grateful for is more than just an exercise. It revives our faith in community, churches, family, and each other.
The library is a lucky community institution anyway with a steady source of funding to meet our basic services and a generous community that enables us to provide services beyond that. But we still take pleasure this time each year in thanking some of you specifically who keep us going in a variety of ways. Without you, life just wouldn’t be the same. Here are some of you for whom we are grateful, brought to you by Pamela Williams, library director.
· Joe Rainey, thank you for donating money and books for our women's studies collection and children’s diversity collection as well as magazine subscriptions.
· Kathy Bauer, thank you and your side kick Wayne Bauer for your endless work organizing the books in the basement Friends of the Library book sale. (The annual bag sale is over, but the book sale is available all hours that the library is open.)
· Nancy Schneider, thank you for your work keeping up with book donations - and thanks all of you who donate those books.
· Thank you, Judge Christopher Nuechterlein, for volunteering your time and expertise to our Constitution Seminar group. This has been a great year to offer these seminars.
· Bavarian Gleaners, thank you for always finding ways to support our programming and new projects.
· Laura Lee, thank you for tending our garden and adding your special touches, like Christmas lights so that everyone in town can enjoy the beauty of your work.
· Jim Hartwig, thank you for quietly trimming the trees around the parking lot, doing the little jobs around the property that make our library shine. You have a way to knowing just what needs done.
· Paul Bergman, thanks for always being available to help us with building issues (and who doesn’t have building issues).
· Thanks to The Library of Michigan for giving us much needed information and support as things changed during the pandemic.
· Thanks to all the Friends of the Library and the Library Board members for their selfless support of their time.
· Thank you to the community for abiding by safety protocols that allow us to keep the doors open. Judging by the number of services people have used throughout the pandemic, those services have been some comfort to the community.
· Thanks to those of you who remember to include the library in your end of year giving. Much of what we can do is because of your generosity.
· Thanks to Vicky Hayden of the Frankenmuth News who professionally and expertly makes sure our weekly column always makes the paper. Even with last second changes from time to time, we do not feel her rolling her eyes.
· Thank you especially to my staff who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to keep the library running. Everything takes three times as long as it used to due to quarantining books and special cleaning protocols. Everyone has all cheerfully stepped up to make sure we provide a safe environment for our community.
All of us at the library wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. We will see you at the Library after the holiday!
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