On Tuesday, December 8, two Van Alstyne Public Library volunteers were honored at the Library Board/Friends of the Library Christmas Party with plaques and poinsettas.
Joy Dickerson, who was a founding member of the library 40 years ago, was honored for her outstanding service. She was on the original Library Board and has continued to serve on the Board for all these years.
Ms. Dickerson has participated in 40 years of fund raising activities, has helped with story time, and with shelving books. In 2002, Joy Dickerson was honored by the Northeast Texas Library System as Library Volunteer of the Year for Libraries Serving Cities Under 12,000.
Audrey Nell Slack has also been very active as a library volunteer for many years. She is a charter member of the Friends of the Library and has served on the Library Board for nearly 40 years.
In 2007, she was honored as Friend of the Year for her many years of service, including at least 15 years of shelving books. For many years she served as Lay Representative of the library at the Northeast Texas Library System meetings.
Both Joy Dickerson and Audrey Slack helped to transform the dream that Van Alstyne could have a library into a reality. They physically helped to clean the rooms above City Hall and helped carry books up those steep stairs to get the library set up and opened to the public.
They physically helped to transform the building across Jefferson Street into a functional library a few years later, and helped to move the books from the second floor library to the new. Joy told me how the boy scouts lowered the books out the second story windows of City Hall. They were both involved in the final move to the present library in the Tooley Building on Waco Street, and have been instrumental in its expansion.
On the same day we were honoring these ladies , another very long standing library volunteer passed away. Lucy Haun was president of the Library board when I was first employed as Library Director at the Van Alstyne Library. She was in her 80s at the time and I was amazed to find out she was the person who shelved books on Mondays, the busiest day of the week.
Lucy Haun has been a bright spot in my life for 15 years, for her energy, wisdom, and vision. After she passed the president’s gavel to someone else, and had to give up her strenuous job as book shelver, she continued to be a patron of the library. When her eyesight prevented her from reading, she listened to books on CDs. Lucy, I will miss you.
The Van Alstyne Library has been fortunate to have three such dedicated supporters over the years. It is no coincidence that there are many other dedicated supporters among the members of the Friends of the Library and the Library Board. The visionaries who saw the importance of a community library 40 years ago have sustained it through the years and continue to inspire others.
From the Desk of Judy Spence: A crowd of close to 60 filled the library Saturday night for Teen Council’s Rock Band tournament. The singers sang, the drummers drummed, and the guitarists gyrated as the competition got under way. It was heartening to see the diverse range of attendees at this year’s tornament drew, with children as young as seven playing slongside older teens.
Some moms and dads stayed to watch but despite my best efforts, could not be swayed to perform. The band, “Blue Bubbles” took the grand prize as they handily beat out the other bands. Vocalist: Miss Paralee Emdy, drums: Miss Britanny Sides, lead guitar: Brett Sides, and bass guitar: Ian Emdy.
Many people still wonder why a library would be hosting a gaming event at all. From the December 2009 article by Camila Alire of the American Library Association: “I support gaming because of its link to literacy, and literacy is part of my advocacy message this year. I found that learning, understanding, and playing games demands fine-tuned high-tech literacy skills. Gaming at the library differs from gaming at home because the library provides a print-rich social setting for reading, learning, and playing. Gaming in libraries also provides a social and safe venue for learning and playing.”
Gaming has served to bring new young adult patrons into our library and show them that libraries aren’t such “uncool” bastions of torture and doldrum they thought they were. Teen Council thanks Mrs. Jolly for donating four hours of her Saturday night to help us chaperone. Merry Christmas from Teen Council!