This article originally appeared in the O’Fallon Weekly.
Summer is typically our busy season at the library with the kids out of school, our Summer Reading Program in high gear, and folks looking for great vacation reads.
Spring, however, is no slouch.
We just wrapped up our Spring Book Sale that brought roughly 2,600 people through our doors over a five-day period. That’s about double what our foot traffic was during the same period the previous week. This sale was organized and executed by our amazing Friends of the Library group.
In total, we had over 40 different volunteers chip in to make the magic happen, raising approximately $10,000. That money helps the Friends support special programs and purchases at the library and participate in other literacy initiatives in our community.
On behalf of the library and our staff, Thank You to all the volunteers and Friends members who made this happen and Thank You to the community for shopping and providing us your support. A special thanks to Ann Morey and Greg and Diane Zelinske for their tireless efforts.
Spring is also tax season at the library. Through a partnership with AARP, we were able to once again offer free tax aide services. There were just over 600 taxpayers helped this year with both their Federal and State returns. Using the average cost for a paid tax service, these clients saved approximately
$151,250 collectively. The Tax Aide volunteers were also able to push back $506,309 in Federal refunds and $26,452 in State refunds.
We know this service provides peace of mind and increased financial security for numerous people in O’Fallon, Belleville, Shiloh, and other surrounding communities. The cost savings and returns realized help some folks pay off bills, put food on the table, and generally contribute to fueling our economy. We are
so very grateful to the AARP volunteers for the hard work they put in this season, and we look forward to hosting them again next year.
Circling back to our Friends of the Library group, they are hosting their first Speaker Series event at O’Fallon Station on Saturday, May 14. As of this writing, tickets remain. Visit ofpl.info/historyguy for all the details.
All proceeds from this event go to support our work with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. There’s going to be wine, door prizes, a 50/50 drawing, and (of course) a presentation by Lance Geiger (aka, The History Guy of YouTube fame).
This event wouldn’t be possible without the help of some generous local businesses. Thanks to Sweet Katie Bees, State Construction, Mike Morrill State Farm, the Beth Ortega Group, and Bank of O’Fallon for their sponsorships. We’d love to see you there.
The O'Fallon Public Library News 