February 23, 2025
Hi! My name is Andrea Boulanger and I’m the President of the Friends of the Monona Public Library. I’ve been a resident of Monona since 2014 and involved with the Friends since 2017. The Monona Public Library is a true gem of our community and our family fell in love with it when my son (now almost 15!) was a preschooler. His 1st grade class at Winnequah made a book called “Our Favorite Places.” While other kids touted Wisconsin Dells and Florida as their favorite place, my son declared the Monona Library as his.
Let’s be real, times are weird and feeling very chaotic for many of us. I recently read about the Sphere of Concern vs the Sphere of Influence. In times like we’re in, it can be easy for your sphere of concern to be enormous while your sphere of influence feels miniscule. The article said to pick 1 cause (local, national, international), whatever you have the bandwidth for, and put your effort there. In that, I ask that you consider supporting the Friends of the Monona Public Library. The Friends fundraises to offset the cost of library programming, services, and materials that their City budget is not able to cover.
Here are some ways to support the Friends of the Monona Public Library:
Donation of Time:
Donation of Talent:
We are recruiting for board officers and committee chairs for our next term. Take a look at our open positions which require about 3-5 hours a month of your time and we only meet as a board 3 times per year! Positions would start in June. Not sure? Please reach out and I’d be happy to chat!
Donation of Treasure:
Become a Member through an annual fee (ranging from $15 to $100)
Make a donation of any size at any time
Donate your books, games, or puzzles (in good condition) for us to sell in our Friends Bookstore on the lower level of the library and purchase items too!
Each January the library director and some of his staff create funding proposals to put before the board. This is hands down the highlight of the year when our dedicated library staff present what they would like to do that year with the funding the Friends provides. It’s inspiring to see what they come up with and you can already see the smiles they will bring to library patrons through their programs and services. This January we provided them with $17,770 (and that doesn’t include what was fundraised at Loud in the Library)!
And on a final and more candid note, folks in Monona and the surrounding area need to step up! Volunteer driven nonprofits like the Friends are constantly teetering on giving up and disbanding because not enough folks in the community are able to give just a little bit of their time. Look what happened to the Monona Fourth of July Festival! It took the threat of no longer having the beloved festival put on by a very burned out board to breathe new life into it. The more folks who get involved in endeavors like these in the community, the less likely there will be burned out volunteers and a guarantee that these wonderful organizations will thrive for years to come!
I urge you to consider supporting the Friends of the Monona Public Library!
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