The Shadow
COVINGTON, VA (VR) – The Alleghany Highlands Regional Library is hoping to make some new friends.
“This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in being a part of their regional library,” said Josh Hagy, current president of the Friends of the AHRL. “I’m hopeful there are a lot of people out there who love the library enough to offer a little bit of their time.”
The Friends of the AHRL is a nonprofit organization that supports the community outreach efforts of the Alleghany Highlands Regional Library. The group is launching a membership drive this month, culminating in its quarterly meeting on Tuesday, November 17.
According to Hagy, the group is in search of active members in the wake of the death of Paula Pickwick, former president, who passed away last fall.
“She really was the heart of the Friends,” said Lisa Sponaugle, AHRL library director. “We certainly miss her at the library. She was a champion for our organization, both in her role as a staff member and as the president of the Friends.”
There are many ways the Alleghany Highlands Regional Library reaches out to the community, including providing digital access cards to every student in the area, maintaining the Books by Mail program, offering the ever-popular Story Time with Miss Tori, the Mountain Toppers Healthy Aging program, and the annual Summer Reading Program. Members of the Friends often help with these programs in a variety of ways, from volunteering in person to providing fundraising support for the group’s financial contributions to the library.
“One of our biggest projects every year is our used book sale that coincides with StreetScene,” said Hagy. “We were unable to hold it this year due to a lull in Friends of the Library efforts and a lack of volunteers.”
The Friends of the Library program is not unique to the Alleghany Highlands. There are Friends organizations throughout the Commonwealth, each dedicated to supporting its local libraries. The relationship between the Friends groups and their libraries is guided by the Library of Virginia, which encourages community involvement in libraries.
The longstanding group was revitalized locally in the late 1990s by then-director Lisa Hicks. Since then, the Friends has supplied budgetary and volunteer support to the AHRL, but the possibility of folding the group was discussed after only two members attended the summer meeting.
“We’re seeing a lot of the same difficulties as other civic organizations,” said Hagy. “Our membership has slowly aged and dwindled over time until we’re in danger of going defunct. We’re hoping to reinvigorate the Friends with a new group of active members that will be an important part of a vibrant library community.”
If the Friends were to become defunct, it would mean the loss of more than $10,000 in yearly budgetary support for the library, as well as an avenue for the community to be a part of a vital asset to the Alleghany Highlands.
For Hagy, who also serves on the library’s Board of Trustees and as president of the AHRL Foundation, volunteering time at the library is a way of making sure the library remains a part of the future of the Highlands.
“I grew up in the library,” he said. “My mom brought me here almost religiously as a kid. I couldn’t wait to check out a stack of books. I’ve never stopped using the library, even as an adult, and now I get to bring my daughter here and raise her in the same library. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the Alleghany Highlands Regional Library. I want to make sure the library is here for her and anyone around here who needs it. I want others to have the same opportunity to grow that I did.”
Anyone who is interested in being a part of the Friends of the Alleghany Highlands Regional Library is encouraged to attend the November 17 meeting. It will begin at 5:30 p.m. upstairs in the library’s W.N. “John” Rice Community Room. For more information about the Friends, email presidentfriendsahrl@gmail.com or call the library at 540-962-3321.
