I hope this holiday season was a brief respite for you to safely enjoy friends and family after many postponed get-togethers. Unfortunately, we are still facing COVID variants. Yet we are grateful for so much. While I hesitate to mention individual volunteers, I want make an exception and acknowledge the exceptional leadership of Kris Matarrese. While our archives may not have recorded all of her activities, she has been an important contributor for many years. Kris was FAL President and skillfully guided the development of the organization. She was the Dewey’s Cafe volunteer coordinator for 10 years, newsletter editor, and has been copy editor for many years finding errors that many of us have overlooked. When we needed help, Kris was there through countless book sales and community events. Kris is stepping down from her volunteer work with FAL and we send best wishes to her and the family.
Over the holiday season FAL volunteers have been hard at work planning exciting programs, including new and reopened services for 2022. Please check out and register for upcoming art docent and author talks. We have an outstanding line-up of speakers and topics.
I also want to report on the remarkable progress in planning for new opportunities to purchase used books. The Library book sale space will open soon; we will hold three special pop-up sales this spring; and finally, we are beginning to plan for the return of the fall book sale at the O’Club in October. Additionally, we will reopen Dewey’s Café in February for the occasional break from library work.