Another rich harvest at the Book Garden

Monroe - Diane LeViseur, the president of the all-volunteer Friends of the Monroe Free Library, received an honor last week in the form of a certificate of appreciation from the New York Library Association. The certificate (for “outstanding advocacy and service”) is awarded by state association to the most effective Friends groups in the state. The Monroe Friends’ highest-profile project is The Book Garden, the store selling “gently used” books that operates next door to the library. Among the initiatives made possible by this year’s proceeds, the Friends: donated $500 to the library’s large print collection; donated $300 to the library’s teen volunteers to facilitate last summer’s Wii tournaments; donated $100 in matching funds to the library’s annual 9/11 fund raiser; is the major sponsor of the library staff’s December raffle, whose proceeds benefit the collection; donated books to Walter Reed Army Medical Center; and donated books to Sr. Celine Marie Oneydeke, a nun from Monroe who is erecting the first library in the village of Abraka, Nigeria. Additionally, the group is partnering with Pine Tree Elementary School to work on a district-wide anti-bullying initiative.

Upcoming schedule
at The Book Garden
The store will be open four hours a day on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in October.
Diane LeViseur, president of the Friends of the Monroe Free Library, says the book store will stay open into November (since the Book Garden’s building has no heat, it stays open as late into autumn as possible.)
The Book Garden will host its second annual Community Flea Market on Saturday, Oct. 23; interested sellers can sign up at the library’s reference desk.