Friends are the Best

The Dwight Friends of the Library met for their AGM last evening at Spring Lake Resort. Thanks must go out to Irene for hosting this, and for letting us be a little bit rowdy with a lot of laughter. As I was leaving the meeting I was stopped by a couple at another table who were all smiles, and had been trying to guess what group was meeting. "You are certainly having a wonderful time," they said cheerfully. They were here from Vermont, and heading into the Park to go Moose Watching, but they'd also enjoyed a little local colour on the way!

Good fellowship, good fun, good food and a good meeting ensued. Kelly whipped through the business part of the meeting, Peggy put forward her Wish List budget, Anne Marie reported on the very successful Archery Tournament (we had people as young as 8, and from as far away as Warren, Ontario, 89 of them in total!)

People are already calling about next year's Archery tournament, and asking if there could be another one in the fall. This is a tremendously popular event, and we are very grateful to the Tapley's at Logging Chain and to the Shields' for all the work they put into it. At the dinner we learned that a new target, a 6' tall standing bear, didn't make it through the night after being placed on course the day before. Another bear, a real one this time, took exception to this "intruder" in his territory, and literally tore the target bear in half. Bill and Ross are still looking for half of their bear... Around $3000.00 was raised for library projects through this fundraiser, so very very many thanks!

Barbara and Julia showed off one of the panels of the quilt that is currently being put together to honour the lifetime members of the Friends. One of these quilts already hangs in the library, with each member's name embroidered on a book spine. We have more friends, so it was time for a new quilt! The new

quilt be on display at the library, and if you would like to be part of this, please see Peggy. A Lifetime Membership is only $100.00 and helps our library provide literacy skills for life in a comfortable inviting setting: there can be no better investment.

Another project undertaken by the Friends involved bringing a Wii into the library. At first blush, this would seem to take away from the focus on reading, encouraging computer gaming instead, but Peggy reports that the books are now just flying off the shelves. Thanks to creative displays that put a selection of youth books in the same room as the Wii, librarians find that the kids pick up the books. Maybe just one... then they come back for the Wii, and pick up another book. Then two... and now Peggy says it is quite common for the Gamers to be heading out of the library with four or five books at a time.

The Dwight library is very blessed to have such a vibrant, involved group of Friends, and our thanks go out to each and every one of you.