Friends of Palestine Library seek members, plan literary festival and underwriting for furnishings

Sarah Sanchez Hewitt, outgoing and continuing president of Friends of Palestine Library Inc., spoke at the board meeting to describe the nonprofit group's recent activity, fundraising and plans.

Hewitt said Friends has been in a rebuilding stage after the library's move and collection changes. The group collects a nominal membership fee ($15 annually) and used funds over recent years to rehome portions of the library collection when space was constrained. Hewitt said the Friends have helped underwrite furnishings for the library's new space and are now debating program priorities and how to deploy funds to best support library services.

Among ideas Hewitt floated were reviving author talks, inviting fiction, nonfiction and poetry authors to speak free of charge to the community, and launching an annual Palestine Literary Fest possibly timed around the Dogwood festival or another spring weekend. She said the memorial board has been generous with underwriting in the past and that Friends welcome community input. Hewitt invited interested residents to the Friends' first meeting of the year on Jan. 28 at 10:00 a.m. in the Redlands Annex and asked those who cannot attend to share ideas with staff member Anna, who will pass them along.

Hewitt described Friends' past fundraising practices: book distributions (noted as distinct from formal sales because the Friends' charter limits fundraising events) where patrons could take books in exchange for donations. She described the organization as open to new members and volunteers and urged attendees to share ideas for programming and author guests.

The board received the report; no formal vote on Friends' activities was recorded during the meeting.