Published Monday, February 3, 2003
There will be cake. There will be ice cream. There will be people who are willing to pay $80 to eat cake and ice cream and support a good cause.
It will be the 80th birthday party for the Shenango Valley Community Library in Sharon.
The fund-raiser will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at the library on Sharpsville Avenue. The event is designed as an "out-and-out fund-raiser" and to wish the library a happy birthday, said Lou Rotunno, library trustee. There will be drawings for door prizes.
Rotunno said he realizes it's a lot of money but the idea is to sell enough tickets to make up the $8,000 shortfall in the library's 2003 budget, caused mostly by Sharon council's cut in funding this year, he said.
The refreshments have all been donated so the entire cost of the ticket will go to the library, Rotunno said.
The money will be used to buy children's books and other necessary materials, he said.
Circulation and patronage at the library has increased by 5 percent over last year. The library circulated 90,000 books last year, a number Rotunno said trustees hope will increase to 120,000. Statistics from the 1930s show circulation was triple what it is now, he said.
There has also been a tremendous increase in computer usage and audio visual materials, he said.
Rotunno said the community has always been very generous to the library. The endowment fund has paid for a variety of things, including new carpeting, a children's area and the Quinby Street Reading Center.
Rotunno said he wants to encourage kids to be readers with the idea: "a newspaper a day, a magazine a week, a book a month."
The library is also starting a program to have local residents and businesses donate books either as an outright gift or as a memorial, Rotunno said. "It's a great gift because it keeps on giving," he said.