December
15, 2018
Dear Jones Library
Supporter,
The end of 2018 is fast
approaching. As you contemplate your year-end charitable giving, we hope you
will consider the Friends of the Jones Library. The Jones Library is one of the
best investments that you can make to sustain what makes Amherst a vibrant and
wonderful place to live and work.
Few other institutions
more vividly represent the heart and soul of our Town; our library helps define
who we are. Amherst’s library should be one of the premier public libraries of
western Massachusetts – and it is.
Did you know that each
year:
- almost 500,000 items are
borrowed;
- 300,000 people enter the
library buildings;
- our computer workstations are
used 29,000 times;
- 4,800 adults, 6,500 youths, and
2,800 teens attend programs;
- 3,200 people attend ESL
tutoring sessions; (25% of the children in Amherst’s schools come from
families whose first language is not English).
The Jones Library can
play this role because, from its inception, it has thrived with private
support above and beyond Town funding. Samuel Minot Jones’ original bequest ($16 million in today’s
dollars) allowed its unique building, and an endowment, to create a town
library that is not just a place to borrow books, but to serve as the core of
our community as well.
In consolidating the
financial appeals of both the Friends of the Jones Library and the Jones
Library, Inc., we’re seeking to revive that private support. Tax revenue alone
doesn’t provide the support to maintain the quality of services the library
provides each year. We want every resident of Amherst to continue to be
able to benefit from a library that is so much more than what tax revenue delivers.
We need your help.
We hope you will
remember the Friends as we say goodbye to 2018. We look forward to providing
the community with more programming, books, and materials in 2019. The Friends
cannot do it without you and we are so grateful for your support. Thank you.
Elaine Donoghue
Co-Chair,
Lucy McMurrer
Co-Chair, Friends of the Jones
Library
Sharon Sharry
Director, Jones Library
