Abbott Library Foundation

At a foundation board meeting last week, we set a goal to complete the first 65% of our fundraising by December 31. We have just $115,000 left to raise to achieve that goal!

At this point, 118 individuals, families and local businesses have made solid commitments totaling $728,000 towards our goal of $1.3 million. The foundation hopes to show powerful community support for the Library, leading in to the vote in March.

We plan to have a major public launch of the campaign immediately after the busy holiday season and will reach out to every community member for financial support before the vote. We believe this will inspire folks at every level of giving, and will also raise everyone’s spirits and determination to win the vote!

In the next few weeks we will be approaching many of our neighbors for support and we hope, when you have the opportunity, you will consider adding your support to our goal. Together we are making this dream a reality!

Best regards,

Mindy Flater
Chair , Abbott Library Foundation

I grew up going to Abbott Library. I met my childhood best friend there, played under the big Dutch Elm during Summer Reading and tried to read every single book on the shelves. When I came home from college in the summers, I gleefully dove into reading for pure pleasure again. When my husband, son and I moved back to Sunapee almost four years ago, getting library cards was at the top of the to-do list. There has been something truly magical about seeing my son, now six, climb the stairs to the same library where I also learned to love reading.
So, is there a small ache in my heart to leave the current building? Absolutely. But Sunapee has grown and evolved in the thirty plus years since I began going to the library. What I must remember is that the books and the wonderful staff that guide us to the right books are what truly make Abbott Library the place I love to go.
Since 1984, when the last addition to the current library was completed, the number of items lent by the library per year has increased from 18,008 to 60,303. In 2011, 1,524 cardholders borrowed from the library! Many of the wonderful programs for children and adults that are offered by the library have to be held off site due to lack of appropriate space at the current library. We all should be proud to live in a community that values and supports the free and equal access to information that the library offers. These numbers tell us not only that the community is growing but that we are doing so in a positive and productive direction.
I agreed to chair this foundation through a capital campaign for a new Abbott Library because I believe in Abbott Library. I believe the time has come for a new building, not just for my son and his generation but for all of us. And I believe that together, Sunapee’s citizens can achieve great things. Please join us.

Thank you,

Mindy Flater
The Abbott Library Foundation, chair