The Friends of the Lewiston Public Library was formed in 1982 by Library Trustee Margaret McKeown as a library advocacy group. Margaret "Peg" Brown served as its first president. It was founded to "promote understanding and appreciation of the functions, the materials and services offered by the library and to raise and disburse funds for expansion and improvement of the services, materials, equipment and physical plant of the library."
Community awareness of library services has grown through the efforts of the Friends group. The group has a small book sale room in the library that operates year round.
Other major fundraisers are their annual book sale, held during the Lewiston Art Festival in August and their annual chicken BBQ held in September. All funds raised are used to support library services.
One of their major programs is "Books for Babies" which is a national literacy program that acquaints parents of newborns with the important role they play in the development of their children. The Friends work with St. Mary's Hospital to hand out an invitation to every Lewiston resident who has a new baby to come visit the Library. Upon visiting the library, the resident is given a gift for their newborn.
Read more about this topic: Lewiston Public Library (Lewiston, New York)
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