September 22, 2014 Meeting
Alice Bisanz Johnson was our speaker. Alice is the School Liaison Librarian at the Prospect Heights Public Library as well as the Library’s volunteer coordinator. The Library’s motto for its volunteers “You’re needed, You’re Wanted, You’re Welcomed” really shines through when you look at the statistics. Today Bill Balling, Prospect Heights City Administrator and member of the Buffalo Grove Rotary Club joined us for our meeting. Greg distributed the forms for our annual citrus sale. The pickup date is yet to be determined, but will be in early December as in previous years. The cost per case will be $28 and people will have the choice among all oranges, all grapefruits, or half and half.
Alice Bisanz Johnson was our speaker. Alice is the School Liaison Librarian at the Prospect Heights Public Library as well as the Library’s volunteer coordinator. The Library’s motto for its volunteers “You’re needed, You’re Wanted, You’re Welcomed” really shines through when you look at the statistics.
Last year the Library had 200 volunteers from 6th grade and older donate over 4,000 hours of their time. The Library is particularly proud of their Junior Library Volunteer program which works with middle and high school students as they meet community service requirements for school and church. These youngsters help set up for large library programs, work with younger children on various projects and even help other students with their homework. Many of these volunteers start in 6th grade and stay with the Library all the way through high school graduation and beyond – returning on college breaks to help as they can.
Another success aspect of the program is finding volunteers for single jobs. Oftentimes the Library needs a volunteer for a one-time event and instead of telephoning everyone individually, Alice sends out an e-blast with a description of the job. She has never been unable to find someone willing to come in and do the work.