By Jason J. Marchi, Courier
Correspondent:
As co-president of
the Friends of the North Haven Memorial Library, Tracy Hlavaty may share the
friend’s organizational management responsibilities with her counterpart,
Bernadette Laubach, but Tracy’s
singular love of books is something she can call her own.
“I’ve always loved
the library and I’m a big book geek. I’m always reading,” Tracy, herself a North Haven resident, says, recalling the day she first
became aware of the Friends of the Library (FOL). “I was in the library one
day, down in the children’s section. I had my kids with me and I was getting
some books because I teach a Catechism class and they have a whole section on
Bible stories.
“So as I was
checking out I saw a pamphlet on the desk and it said something like, ‘Are you
a friend of the library?’” Tracy
says. “That’s when I realized all the things the friends do. So I sent [the
mailer] in with my donation, and then-president [Phyllis Casher] called me and
asked me to come to the next meeting.”
After that first
meeting Tracy
was hooked and her participation “snowballed from there as I got more
involved,” she says. After her first year helping in whatever capacity she was
needed, Tracy
witnessed the job of president become so time-consuming the duties were best
served by two people.
After a year of
Phyllis Casher and Bernadette Laubach serving as co-presidents, Tracy stepped up without
hesitation and volunteered to become co-president with Laubach.
Today, the admitted
bookworm is now in her second year as co-president of the FOL and she’d learned
first-hand just how big a job it is.
“Bernadette and I
both have kids, so it’s easier for us to do it together and split up the work,”
Tracy notes.
The FOL totals some
900 people and Tracy
handles membership, including keeping the database up to date.
“I also coordinate
the mailings, like the annual mailing each April, and I do a lot of publicity
for programming. Bernadette is very motivated. She’s very good with people,
getting people involved, assigning tasks, and she’s very good at running the
meetings.”
Tracy and Bernadette
also work together directly as needed, along with a core group of 20 volunteers
who physically help out around the library.
“I put in two hours
a week volunteering in the bookstore,” Tracy
says of the shop housed in an old meeting room the FOL commandeered to
permanently house the gently used books.
The proceeds from
each quality book sold in the bookstore are used to fund the FOL’s programs for
both adults and children.
“The town pays for
the basic library operations: the employee salaries and benefits, the heat and
electricity, and for the purchase of new books for the stacks,” Tracy explains. “But the
monies raised by the friends pays for the library programs. Without that there would
be no adult programs and very few children’s programs.”
Some recent
children’s offerings include mother/daughter book discussion for grades four
through nine, Toddler Time, Krafty Kids, Having Fun with Fossils and Dinosaurs,
music, Italian Heritage, Letterboxing, and Dads and Donuts, among several
others. Adult programs include visiting author book discussion, talks and
signing, and film showings.
Tracy also notes that the FOL organizes special
fundraising events, like the recent one at McDonalds on Washington Avenue where 20 percent of all
meal sales that day went toward funding children’s programs at the library.
“We also did a tag
sale on Saturday, selling toys and books. Events like that require extra
planning and volunteer hours,” Tracy
points out.
Additionally, the
funds raised by the FOL don’t pay just for programming. Most of the open
floor-area shelves in the children’s section were purchased with FOL monies,
allowing easy access for little fingers to thousands of books, and the FOL also
pays for large-print editions for adult-level readers.
“I love bringing my
kids here,” Tracy says of her two sons, ages 6 and 8. “I grew up in North Haven
and I came to this library before it was renovated. The children’s section was
downstairs in the old library, like it is today. So every time I walk
downstairs to the children’s section with my kids it’s a flashback of
remembering going down there to pick out books. I love for them to do the
same.”
Pictured: Tracy
Hlavaty stands before shelves of books for sale at the North Haven Memorial
Library. Proceeds from the sale of books, DVDs, and books on tape help fund
programs for children and adults through the Friends of the Library, of which Tracy is now in her
second year as co-president.
Photo by
Jason J. Marchi
To nominate a person of the week, email Jason
Marchi at j.marchi@shorepublishing.com or call 203-245-1877 x 6166.