When provided with the means to better nonprofit agencies within the community, none reaches them more than the Abilene Gives initiative started by the Community Foundation of Abilene. This initiative provides a 24-hour giving event where people are asked to show their support for local nonprofits through donating as little as $10.
This year, the event was held on May 3, and in that 24-hour period, 3,814 donors gave $1,734,369.00 to 161 organizations. Of those, the Friends of the Abilene Public Library was one, and this year they helped to raise an impressive $11,569.00!!!
As a volunteer organization designed to support the mission of the Abilene Public Library system, we’re thrilled to say we have one of the best and most active groups around. The Friends’ board worked hard this year to help spread the news of donating funds to benefit their library, and under the leadership of board member Kathy Curtis, they exceeded their goal of raising $10,000.00 this year.
Our Friends of the Library have remained very active in their support of Abilene’s library system and the hard work they’ve put in can be easily seen. Some of the most visible ways that has manifested was through raising the funds to establish the Mockingbird Branch Library and operate it for the first two years it opened, donating $1.5 million to the relocation of the South Branch Library to the Mall of Abilene, as well as their large contribution to the Abilene Heritage Square project, which will relocate the Main Library.
Funds raised from this year’s Abilene Gives event will go to fund new services at your Abilene Public Library including adding sensory room equipment, STEAM equipment, wobble chairs, and summer reading club incentive prizes in the future. New services that will greatly benefit the youth in our community.
If you’d like to be a part of this organization, feel free to learn more about them by visiting the Friends of the Library page online. You can also follow them on Facebook. If libraries, literacy, and community are your passion, there’s no better place to be than among the Friends!