A heartfelt story from East Central telling a Library Legacy story that will bring tears to your eyes and demonstrates the importance of continuing an Arts and Cultural Heritage appropriation to the regional library systems.
I am asking you to leave the formula for Legacy funding for public libraries as it is. Let me tell you a story about a Legacy funded program that our small rural library presented in April.
Through Legacy funding, we were able to present, "Happy Days are Here Again: A Musical Review of the Greatest Generation" in conjunction with the MN Historical Society. 42 people attended this Saturday afternoon program. Among them was a couple that is in their 90's, Doug and Betty. Doug has the beginnings of dementia. I kept an eye on them out of the corner of my eye, and several times during the program, Doug leaned over to Betty and sang the words to her. After the program, Doug came up to the performers and to me, and said, "This is too wonderful for words! I knew the words to every one of the songs you performed". There were tears in his eyes.
This type of programming means so much to rural library users. We simply could not afford to do it on our own, nor could we afford to hire grant writers that would be necessary to compete with larger libraries for the funding.
Sincerely,
Mary Beth Woodrow, Aitkin Branch Librarian
Aitkin Public Library
110 1st Ave NE
Aitkin, MN 56431
218-927-2339