CANMORE – In 1993, Canmore's Ken and Lorraine Williamson organized a fundraiser to relocate the library out of their former, cramped library catered to the population of around 6,600.
That’s how Friends of the Canmore Library was born.
Achieving their goal, the library moved into what is now artsPlace, and then to the Canmore Public Library's current home, Elevation place, which they moved into in 2013. During the moves, they’d create a human chain down the streets with the community to transfer the books onto their new shelves.
Now, 30 years later, through their books sales, donations, memberships, speaker series, grants and raffles, they have raised more than $500,000 that goes back into the library. Book sales have been leading the total with approximately $280,000 raised.
Their last sale raised more than $5,600.
“I have friends who plan visits to Canmore based around the book sale,” said Carla Cumming Sojonky, volunteer. “It was always a tradition in our house. You come to the book sale and then we go out for fish and chips afterwards.”
“It's just a really warm and friendly small-town atmosphere. We’re so blessed to have such a terrific library."
The volunteer run organization uses the raised funds to help with library with a variety of needs like collection enhancement, furniture, audio-visual materials, shelving and filming equipment for online programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual book sales are typically held three times a year, apart from 2020, making a current total of 64 book sales.
To make browsing easier, the books donated by the community are sorted by volunteers into their respective genres in preparation for a sale .
Rae Hurley, whose been the book sorter coordinator for the past 14 years, has over 20 volunteers who sign up for one-week periods to sort all the books donated that week to have books ready for the next sale.
In their latest book sale, they crammed 3,000 books across and underneath the tables.
With an upcoming sale in the horizon Pennie Casey, book sale coordinator, contacts her list of 70 volunteers to help move boxes of books, setup tables, help during the sale and takedown once the sale is done.
“There's a lot of volunteer hours that go into something like this, between organizing it, setting it up and then running it,” said Donna Bailmain of the 30th anniversary committee.
“It's a wonderful group of women … This is a major fundraiser and they're just super organized and everybody's real keen and eager and it goes pretty smoothly.”
Barb Profitt, who's been volunteering for around three decades, says that it was a “no-brainer” to join friends as she’s a librarian by trade and worked in the library in its previous location.
“People work well together, and the only trouble is when we get so crowded, and you can’t move,” she said.
“It's a great thing and it's so good for the community.”
They typically have three sales a year and offer four nights for book lovers to pour in and scour the collection. The first night begins with members, the following nights are open to the public with the last night allowing for bookworms to fill a bag for $10.
Following the sale, on Nov. 23 at 7 p.m., Friends of the Canmore Library is hosting another speaker series at the library for the anniversary. It will feature Mike Petroff, a Canmore singer and songwriter, who will be entertaining the crowd with stories and songs. Admission is by donation.
Friends typically host eight speakers a year.
Along with book sales and other fundraising, they also have raised $96,000 from refundable donations. The idea was started by Paul Greig who began personally collecting refundables, raising around $4,000 in his last four years.
Greig passed away in 2006 but to continue his idea, friends repurposed recycling bins set up at Boulder Crescent Recycling Depot in partnership with the Town of Canmore. Unfortunately, due to vandalism, proceeds began to decline. In 2018, Friends was granted two secure bins by applying to the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation, which helped increased revenue.
From that success there will be a third bin added this year.
