Friends of the Library Announce Challenge Grant at ReNew Brentwood Block Party; Racing to Read Storytimes Help Build Early Literacy Skills
September 24, 2015 —
The public phase of the ReNew Brentwood capital campaign got off to a great start on Sept. 20 at the Brentwood Branch. Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us, entertained audiences, sponsored booths and refreshments, and participated in the raffles to benefit the campaign.
If you haven’t heard, the campaign also got a giant bump that day when the Friends of the Library issued a $200,000 challenge grant for ReNew Brentwood. Once the Library Foundation raises $200,000 from donations starting with the Sept. 20 kickoff, this amazing volunteer group will donate $200,000 to the campaign.
For now, the total sits at $1.3 million as a result of the major gifts phase. Meeting the Friends challenge in the coming weeks will pump another $400,000 into the campaign and move us closer to the $2.5 million goal.
There is more work and fundraising ahead, but this is an exciting time when we hope everyone will help a little as we move closer to the April 2016 renovation launch date.
You can keep up with future campaign events and interesting stories about the renovation by following the ReNew Brentwood blog on thelibrary.org, or by visiting yourlibraryfoundation.org. For more details about the campaign, call Foundation Director Valerie Richardson at 417-616-0586.
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A Springfield grandmother recently visited one of the library branches to brag on her granddaughter, Hayden. Since the two have been coming to toddler storytime every week and practicing those activities at home, the grandma said, Hayden is hitting lots of developmental milestones.
Children’s librarians see these success stories all the time because the library’s Racing to Read storytimes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers are fun for little ones and give families great ideas for building early literacy skills at home.
Most of the 10 library branches have a weekly schedule of Racing to Read storytimes. You can get a schedule of all the storytimes in the Racing to Read brochure at any branch, in the Bookends calendar of events or at thelibrary.org/racingtoread.