This story starts with a Library Building Program. When we started soliciting community input through surveys and focus groups back in summertime, James Saviano caught wind of what we were doing and wanted to help. He donated the Damascus steel quillion dagger he crafted, printed out raffle tickets for us, and we ran the fundraiser in parallel to our Friends of the Library fall auction. You can read all about Jim, the knife, and the raffle here.
At last night’s Board of Trustees meeting, we transferred the raffle tickets to Jim’s pot, stirred them, shook them, and drew a winner. Congratulations go to Paul Crowley, who chose the knife over the $1,000. And heartfelt thanks to go everyone who bought raffle tickets! We sold 500 tickets total, raising $5,000 for the Library’s building fund!
This story also ends with a Library Building Program, because the final draft was serendipitously completed the day before the drawing! If you want to know why we’re trying to raise money for our building fund, you can read all about it here.
If you didn’t win the raffle, I wish you better luck the next time you challenge the odds. Rest assured, though, your investment in the future of the Library is honored and appreciated. Thank you! We will miss having the dagger on our circulation desk, but such is life.