Letter from the Amherst Town Library Trustees:

With children all around her on the Library’s worn and stained carpeting, Jackie Biger, our wonderful children’s librarian has made it work. Despite the shabby condition of the children’s room floor, the kids love the library and what she has to offer. Programming is exciting and enrollment in reading programs and activities is way up. Now Miss Jackie is leaving us to start a new life with her husband in France, and we’d like to kick off a fund raising appeal that will replace the carpeting on the lower level. This carpeting has been in place 25 years, a lot longer than we’d leave carpeting in our homes. It is not just unsightly. It is unsanitary and embarrassing in a library that has recently been named one of the top five in our state. It’s time for the carpet to go and a great way to say a goodbye to Jackie, too, for she wants new carpeting for the children more than anyone. We will be putting in carpet tiles, which are not only sensible in a public building, but easy for fund raising. Each tile costs $25 to purchase and install, and there will be a list of donors visible in the downstairs area where a child can see that a parent or grandparent or friend has donated a carpet tile for Miss Jackie in his or her name. We’ll also give Miss Jackie a list of those who helped out with the project. We have a matching grant from the Bean Foundation, so we need to raise just $6,000 from other sources to put down new carpeting on the lower level. There is a sample tile on display so you can see what the carpet will be like. You can make checks payable to the Amherst Town Library with “carpet tile” on the memo line or make a donation online with your your credit card. Please consider buying one or more carpet tiles for the project. This is simple, direct, and much needed fundraising, and something that your children can understand and get excited about. We all know that when something as important as the local library needs help, people do what they can, such as buying a carpet tile to remember someone who made a difference in our lives.

The Amherst Library Trustees