Annual Give-A-Kid-A-Book Campaign Celebrates 35 Years
Green Bay, WI – The Friends of the Brown County Library and honorary chair, Bre LaFleur, wife of Green Bay Packers Head Coach, Matt LaFleur, announce the launch of the 35th annual Give-A-Kid-A-Book campaign.
The annual book collection invites individuals, families, businesses, churches, schools, clubs and organizations to donate new, unwrapped books that will be given as gifts to local children, babies through age 18, in low-income families. Book distribution takes place in partnership with the Green Bay Salvation Army Holiday Assistance program in December.
Give-A-Kid-A-Book kicks off in the Youth Services Department of the Brown County Central Library, 515 Pine Street, downtown Green Bay on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. Featured guests include students from Tank Elementary School, Bre LaFleur, Friends representatives, and others. Give-A-Kid-A-Book is partially funded by Nicolet National Bank, Augustine Stewardship Fund, Green Bay Area Retired Men’s Club, Allouez Optimist Club, Green Bay Packers Give Back, Brown County Community Women’s Club, and Festival Foods.
The Friends are making it easy to donate - shop online and in-person!
Perk (purk) Short for perquisite.1.n. A reward or added benefit received in addition to a regular satisfaction.2. v. To become more cheerful and lively.
Why do people join and remain members of the Friends of the Brown County Library? In its most basic sense, we hope that they believe in and want to support our mission, which is to help the Brown County Library in its broad efforts to improve childhood, teen, and adult literacy in the county.
But let’s be honest, the perks sure do make a membership that much more valuable and worthwhile.
Book Sale perks - Your membership gives you exclusive admittance to the members-only opening day of our bi-annual BIG Book Sale. New this year, members will have more hours to shop on opening day, as doors will now open at 1 p.m. instead of 3 p.m. as in years past. And in addition, an informal Member Appreciation reception is held during this opening day, offering snacks and refreshments to tide you over during your shopping spree.
Newsletter perk - While our newsletter is available free of charge at any Library location, your membership entitles you to be first in line to receive a paper copy mailed directly to your home.
Exclusive Discount perks - Members who show their membership card receive a 10% savings at these participating booksellers: The Attic (730 Bodart St. in Green Bay), Lion’s Mouth Bookstore (401 N. Washington St. in Green Bay), and Powers Comics & Collectibles (two locations, Powers Comics at 2180 S. Ridge Rd in Ashwaubenon and Powers East at 1230 Main St. in Green Bay). Thank you to these retailers for supporting the Friends!
Exclusive Book Club perk - The Reading Between the Spines book club was established by the Friends as a local book discussion club open to members only. For each limited-attendance event, the club purchases the books of that title for members to read. After the in-person discussion, the books are then donated to the Library for their collections.
Exclusive Event perks - The Friends have begun scheduling events that are only open to Friends members.
As a member, you will receive an email notice of upcoming members-only Events and Book Club discussions as they are scheduled.
The above are the more tangible “Definition #1” benefits of being a Friend, but “Definition #2” also has its satisfaction. The pleasure of finding that special book at the Book Sale…Seeing a parent’s gratitude at receiving books for their kids’ Holiday gifts from the Friends Give-A-Kid-A-Book program…Knowing that newborns and their parents will start their journey to literacy with baby books provided by the Friends Born-to-Read program. …the satisfaction of helping children, tweens, teens, and even adults maintain their reading enjoyment over the Summer by helping the Library’s Summer Reading Program.
Those are the real perks of our Friends memberships. Perhaps not to the level of becoming “lively and cheerful,” but certainly “warm and satisfied.” I’ll take that as a perk.
The Friends of the Brown County Library is more than just an organization. It is exactly what the name implies; volunteer Friends who care enough about the success of the Library that they choose to contribute their time to make our programs and activities possible. Some, like our Board of Directors and our program leaders, may be more visible to our members, while others work behind the scenes for many years with little fanfare but are no less vital to our success. We regret to report the passing recently of two of those notable long-time Friends volunteers, Anita Powers (age 99) and Ginney Amen (age 103).
For Anita, the Library had always been a home away from home. She worked at the Kellogg Public Library in her 20s, and while she left for a stint in the U.S. Naval Reserve and then to raise a family, the Library, and its opportunities for lifelong learning, was always a part of her life. She volunteered for the Friends Book Sale for more than 20 years, as a cashier at the sale and as a book sorter between the sales. One of her legacies is that at a recent sale, four generations of her family worked the sale as cashiers, organizers, and runners. In her later years, she expressed a wish to be buried with her library card!
Ginney never had time to sit still. In addition to her regular work for the Library and our Book Sales, she also volunteered for many local organizations, including Unity Hospice, Ashwaubenon Historical Society, Unity Hospice, Hazelwood Historic House Museum, the Green Bay Botanical Garden, the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, and as a Reading Buddy at Tank School.
"In 2018, the Friends recognized both Anita and Ginney (along with Millie Kappel and Rosmary Michalec), all in their 90s at the time, as our 2017 Volunteers of the Year. Everyone who worked with them was motivated by their hard work, embarrassed by their energy, and inspired by their years of commitment to the Friends. Our Book Sales will not be the same without Anita and Ginney - they will certainly be missed.
The March 17-24, 2022 edition of City Pages has an article about the new UntitledTown.
UntitledTown Turns a New Page
The Friends of the Brown County Library and the GAKAB 2021 honorary chairs, Green Bay Packers wives Molly (Mason) Crosby, and Aiyda (Randall) Cobb, announce the launch of the 33rd annual Give-A-Kid-A-Book Campaign. View the press release here.
The Friends of the Brown County Library needs help sorting donated books for its Big Book Sale!
This is an ongoing, year-around volunteer opportunity that entails sorting donated and withdrawn books into 40+ categories in preparation for the Friends semi-annual book sale. Once sorted, the books are boxed and moved into stacks. Boxes weigh 25-40 lbs.
Volunteers will need to complete 3 hours (two 90 minute sessions) of orientation and training. After that, you will be asked to commit to volunteering several hours per week at the BCL Central Library in the Friends sorting room. Once trained, volunteers set their own hours, during the library's open hours.
Volunteers must be members of the Friends of Brown County Library. To volunteer or for more information about this opportunity, contact Curt Heuer at booksort@browncountylibraryfriends.org
After last year's cancellation, UntitledTown makes its return under a new community partnership with the Friends of the Brown County Library.
"UntitledTown: The Comeback Event" will be held on Saturday, August 21, 2021 at the Brown County Library's Central Library.
A one day celebration of reading, writing, and stories, the event will feature almost twenty authors, including Miranda and Baptiste Paul, Nickolas Butler, Patricia Skalka, Amanda Skenandore, Pao Lor, and Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.
Detailed event information, including times, can be found at lionsmouthbookstore.com
After a year of book sale cancellations, the Friends have finally been given the go ahead to sort donated books and once again conduct the popular Big Book Sale, scheduled for June15-17, 2021.
The library recently moved to “Chapter 4” in their reopening plan. While still in a phase of limited public service, this change does allow our volunteers to return into the Central Library building to sort books, and also allows us to hold a modified book sale.
Since our sorters can get back to work, the Friends can now start accepting book donations as of May 1, 2021. Please check out our Book Donation Page for information regarding the books we accept.
Due to the lingering effects of the pandemic, our upcoming Book Sale will have some restrictions. It will be shorter, lasting only three days instead of the usual six. To better control attendance, it will be held in an area of the Central Library’s main floor, instead of throughout the entire lower level. And since we haven’t been sorting books for the past year, the sale will be limited to books on hand, including a great selection of children and teen books, hardcover and paperback fiction, coffee table books, and some large print books. Check out our Book Sale Page for details on hours and pricing. The Library’s safety protocols will be in effect for the sale, including policies regarding masks and limited patrons to maintain distancing.
Please plan on coming to our June Big Book Sale - we so look forward to seeing you again!
Welcome!
You are viewing the new website of the Friends of the Brown County Library. We hope you will enjoy the news and new content that we can now provide for you.
This website has features specifically geared for our members. In addition to accessing a personalized membership card, members can now manage their account and make payments online, all without having to leave the comforts of home.
If you are not yet a member, please consider joining us, we’d very much appreciate your support.
If you are already a member and you provided us with an email address at some point, you should have received an emailed letter in the last week introducing you to the new website. If you did not see the email in your Inbox, either check to see if it might have been diverted to your Spam folder, or contact us to make sure we have your correct address.
If you are a member but haven’t provided us with your email address, please consider doing so. Your email address serves as your username for logging in to your account and taking advantage of the website’s online features. But if you don’t care to use email, that’s fine, we can continue to communicate with you by postal mail.
We hope you will all take advantage of all the website’s new features. Once the pandemic eases and the Friends can start assembling again, we hope to fill the “Events” and “Blog” portions of the site with our latest plans and activities.
Thank you.
Don Kraft
Secretary, Friends of the Brown County Library
For website comments/questions, contact webmaster@browncountylibraryfriends.org
For general FBCL comments/questions, contact info@browncountylibraryfriends.org
Due to continued limitations regarding access to the Central Library building, the 2020 Fall Big Book Sale normally scheduled for late October has been cancelled.
The Friends of the Brown County Library is a
501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Copyright 2020 Friends of the Brown County Library
515 Pine Street, Green Bay, WI 54301