When Emily Kovacs and her now-husband moved to Bradford two years ago she decided she wanted to become part of the community’s fabric.
“We had lived in downtown Toronto … and I think we both realized we were small-town people,” she begins. “We’re one of the newbies but we love it. We love to support local.
“When I moved here I wanted to find ways to give back to the community … and I really knew nobody here.”
The human relations specialist found commuting on the train three days each week to her hybrid job in banking agreeable, giving her time to prepare for the day in the mornings and unwind with a book during the commute home.
She set her sights on the Bradford West Gwillimbury Friends of the Library, a group 20 strong that supports the library, largely through fundraising efforts, including their book sale, which they run three times each year. There are also pop-up events. Kovacs was recently at the Bradford Farmers' Market where she and others were selling some books and promoting the larger upcoming event.
The volunteers are currently in the throes of holding their next book sale this weekend (Oct. 18 to 20) at the library (425 Holland St. W.).
The organizers expect to see thousands of titles available to shoppers, most at $1 each. Children’s books are less and some premium books might be priced higher. The books are both donations and older titles weeded off the library shelves to make room for new ones.
The sale starts Friday at 4 p.m. until 7:30 p.m., continues Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and again Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m.
Many people will pick up 10 to 20 books, read them and then donate them back for a future book sale, says Kovacs. The volunteers raised $3,500 through the last book sale in June.
“Growing up, the library was always the great equalizer for my family,” says Friends’ chair, Jennifer Harrison, who had served on the library board for three terms previously, one as its chair. “You can go in and the services and the offerings there are free.”
The charitable arm of the library, she adds, has long served the community, doing good work. The automatic doors through which visitors enter the library were built through one of the group’s projects. Other initiatives include bringing in authors to present to community members as well as programs for children.
It accepts donations in all forms for the library and runs other fundraisers as well.
Ongoing efforts through the Friends volunteers has allowed the library to add equipment and programming to which they would otherwise not have access. A $50,000 donation, for example, allowed the library to refresh all its shelving.
The organization also helps to promote community awareness of the library as a welcoming space — a resource that is about arts, music, community connections and just so much more than reading, adds Kovacs, who is involved in the Friends’ marketing and book sale committees.
“It's a really diverse group of people and I can see first-hand the impact we’ve had,” she says.
Friends welcomes more members to help in their ongoing efforts. Anyone interested in becoming a member is welcome to regular meetings, held on the first Monday of every month at 6:30 p.m. in the BWG library board room.
