Library News Updates!

It's a busy Monday morning and I've got all the news that's fit to print.






First of all, congratulations to the Book Babes (forgive me for being self-congratulatory with that statement!), our Relay for Life team. The Book Babes were the top fundraising team for this year's Relay for Life Des Plaines/Park Ridge, earning Gold Level team status by raising $5254,00 and counting...(we're selling baked good and candy in the staff lunch room right now!) To the right you can see the truly dedicated members of the Book Babes who did the entire 12 hours of Relay for Life: Linda Knorr, Eileen Gladish, Gail Bradley, Joanie Sebastian, Veronica Schwartz (our fearless leader) and Kathy Kyrouac. What I want to know is: how do these women look so radiant and happy after 12 hours of walking and trying to stay warm in the wee hours of the morning? Proof that doing good for people is better than any beauty product on the market. It may also be the magic cookie bars that Linda made...

Other library members of the Book Babes included Francine Gralak and her daughter Kat, Pat Horn, Bob Blanchard, and yours truly, along with Bonnie Gaynor. All of us were grateful that our library buddies and family members came out to cheer us on, too. We walked, we sold raffle tickets and baked goods, we bought raffle tickets and snacks from other teams, we even bounced in the Moon Walk and hula hooped (hooray for the Web Services Hula Hoop Team!). I hope to have a short video to share with you later this week, featuring not only the Book Babes but many of the other Relay for Life teams and events.

Now -- I said I had all the news, so here's item number 2. The Library has distributed the last of the CFL bulbs that we had. The City of Des Plaines has a small supply left, so if you'd still like to get your three, free CFL bulbs, call the City first before arriving. We regret that the Library has no more bulbs to share, but we were excited to see how many people in Des Plaines want to take part in saving energy and becoming more "green."

News Flash Number Three: speaking of going green, we want to give you advance notice that the Library will soon be selling good quality, reusable tote bags for just ONE DOLLAR. That's right. Just a buck. Not too many useful things you can get for a dollar these days. But it's important to us to stop choking the Earth with plastic bags that don't decompose in landfills - we want to leave a positive legacy behind for the children we serve in our Youth Services department today, and that legacy doesn't include mountains of trash. So we'll be making these new, large and sturdy bags available to you for just one dollar. How can we do that? By buying responsibly and through a very generous donation from our amazing Friends of the Library. Watch this space for more information about the bags as soon as they arrive.

TA DA! News Flash Number Four: A reminder that the Memorial Day holiday falls on Monday, May 26 this year, so the Library will be closed next Sunday, May 25 and Monday, May 26, in observance. We will reopen on Tuesday, May 27 at 9 AM. We hope that you and yours have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend, with time to reflect on the true meaning of Memorial Day.

That's all for now but if it's this busy on Monday, you know there will be more news later this week.