July 12, 2016 – In the first meeting of our new Rotary administration and the first meeting at our new meeting location, Brittany Mathis brought us a message about the Charleston Friends of the Library and the programs they support to enhance reading and much more in our community. Mathis graduated from Hampton University and taught English in a high school in China right out of college. A native of Seattle, she has been executive director of the Friends of the Library for a little over a year.
The Friends of the Library was started in 1982 and in that year earned about $200 in support of the library. Today the Friends of the Library raise over $100,000.00 annually to support over 6,000 programs the library provides in our community. Mathis asked us how we most recently used the library and the answers she received included historical research, children’s programs and just getting books and other media for pleasure. She relayed how these are just a few of the benefits the library brings to us. The programs supported by her organization help children learn to read, give residents a vehicle to find jobs and provide tax clinics to assist us in filing those returns we all find so, well, taxing. One of the most popular programs the Friends support is the Summer Reading program for children, but the activities of the Friends spans the whole year.
Mathis explained how each March the library presents Charleston Tells, a program which brings together the best story tellers from across the state and the nation. September brings another popular program with the Big Trucks event. At the Johns Island library branch fire trucks, bucket trucks, dump trucks and the like are brought together for the enjoyment of children young and old. Mathis said she thought the dads were more taken with the trucks than the kids!
And how does the Friends organization raise all the money to support these vital programs of the Charleston County Public Library? There is a staff of one, Mathis, and hundreds of volunteers. There are about 800 members of the Charleston Friends of the Library. An individual membership costs $20.00 and a family membership costs only $35.00. Membership benefits include invitation to member only events which occur prior to the book sales put on by the Friends open to the general public. These sales occur four times a year at different regions of the county. The most recent such sale raised over $13,000.00 for the programs of the library. The singular event presented by the Friends which raises the most money in support of the library’s programs is the Big Book Sale, which occurs every October at the Omar Shrine Temple in Mount Pleasant. Over 60,000 books, CDs and the like are available for purchase at this event. It takes the hard work of over 300 volunteers to make this sale possible.
As successful as the events are for the library, Mathis and her organization are always on the look for other opportunities. In April the Bay Street Biergarten hosted “Books for Beer” where patrons were given a free beer for donating gently used books. And just a day after our meeting a wine tasting was to occur at the Glass Onion to benefit the Friends. Mathis asked us to contact her and the Friends if our businesses were interested in being a part of the Friends’ efforts to raise money in support of the important programs our library brings to us and our neighbors. All money earned by the Friends goes to the general fund of the Charleston County Public Library. And never fear that the books donated to the Friends will be wasted. Those donated books which are not sold at the books sales presented by the Friends are given to local nonprofits extending the benefits of the Friends’ efforts beyond the patrons of our local library system.
— Alex Dallis, Keyway Committee