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Fundraising Adventures, or, Is It Worth It?
by Karen Bernau, Knutson Memorial
Library, Coon Valley
At
my library, we always have more items on our wish list than money! In
these tough economic times, it is becoming more and more necessary to be
creative in raising money for special materials or projects; budgeted
funding just does not cover everything it used to.
For years, I had read about “elegant, black-tie” library fundraisers in
places like New York, or Boston, or Knoxville…and thought “wouldn’t
it be nice?”, followed by “no, not in a little place like
Coon Valley!” And then, one day a flyer arrived in the bin delivery
advertising Trempealeau’s “Sweet Affair” fundraiser – it sounded like
just the sort of social event I had in mind, and Trempealeau isn’t
that much bigger than Coon Valley. The library board was interested,
but felt that we needed some type of “program” in case people weren’t
feeling very social!
We
decided on the last Sunday in February from 4:00-7:00 as a good date. We
felt that late winter would be a good choice with everyone feeling
cabin-feverish and few conflicting events to contend with. The board
took charge of soliciting donations from local businesses for raffle and
door prize items, arranging to use the local Legion Hall, lining up the
high school jazz band for entertainment, doing advance publicity,
selling advance tickets, and planning the food. They left me the tasks
of arranging a wine tasting with the local vineyard, selling tickets,
and planning the “program”.
I
am interested in local history and had a ready-made source of
information in the various photos and scrapbooks that had been donated
to the library over the years, not to mention access to various longtime
resident memories through our “Coffee” programs, so I decided to
concentrate on a display of old area photographs which we called
“Pictures from the Past”. There were at least six people I knew who
graciously allowed me to raid their collections to augment those the
library owned. In addition, I also picked people’s memories and put
together a sheet of twenty trivia questions.
Let me say that I was terribly naïve and had no idea how much time (or
money) putting together a photo exhibit would entail. Luckily, I
borrowed 50 photos from a local photographer who gave me invaluable
assistance in creating displays as well as digitizing those 50 photos
and loaning the series of 20 8x10 framed portraits of local “characters”
he had done.
Once I had borrowed close to 150 photographs I had to tackle the problem
of how to display them. We did not have time to get them all digitized
and displaying the originals was quickly ruled out because of possible
damage or loss so the library scanner and photo printer got a lot of use
for a several weeks! This was also a good way to advertise Photoshop
Elements since I was able to vary the sizes and repair some of the age
damage. It was amazing how well most of the photos scanned, enlarged,
and printed.
We
also found a series of 20 photos taken by Life Magazine photographers in
1944 of the village and people. This was very exciting, and added a
great deal to our exhibit. My big splurge was a digital photo viewer
when I realized there was no way I was going to have the room to
display all 150 photos! I have to confess that I didn’t have time to get
it going for the fundraiser – we took the computer, instead – but it has
attracted a lot of attention since at the circ desk.
Inexpensive foam board sheets provided the “matting”, with clear photo
corners to hold the photos with the least amount of wear and tear; I
taped two sheets together to form bi-fold display panels which stood
quite well on their own. When everything had been arranged and mounted,
I realized that all of the photos I had chosen were from 1900-1944,
something totally unplanned!
Finally the day arrived and everything came together perfectly, in
spite of minor mishaps with glue bottles, computers, scanners, vegetable
trays and M&M’s! Even the weather was perfect. The raffle items
(everything from fifty pound bags of bird seed to free oil changes, gift
baskets, gift certificates, and Jon Lee photos) were on display, all the
cheese and meat had been cut, the wineglasses were ready, and the stage
was set…would anyone come?
They came in mobs – with short breaks in between – and bought enormous
lengths of raffle tickets, enjoyed the music, photos, and trivia, the
food and the wine! I think everyone saw at least one photo they had
never seen and learned at least one thing about their village…I do know
that one person found a photo of his house they weren’t expecting, and
someone else won an unexpected photo of his dad. It was a “wonderful
party” and a truly unique experience!
Will we do it again? Well, it was a lot of work (more than
we expected, I think), but we were blown away by the support from local
businesses and the enthusiasm expressed by those who bought tickets;
also stunned when we counted up the final result which far exceeded our
expectations! We have told ourselves it will be easier next time because
we’ll know what we are doing (theoretically) and…I have several more
names of people who have photo collections of the area and…everyone is
asking if we will do it again next year…so…ask me again in the fall,
when I’ve forgotten the hard work and just remember the fun!
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