Partner Up with the Friends
Leave a Bequest to the Friends of the Library Endowment
In 1971, the Bainbridge Island Friends assumed responsibility for the Annual Library Book and Rummage Sales. Over the next few years, sales of rabbits, china, laying hens, clothing and toys slowly gave way to sales devoted to books.
By 2007, a highly successful partnership had developed between the Community, who donate the books and the Friends who sell them, a partnership that enabled the Friends to establish the Friends of the Library Endowment for the support of the Bainbridge Public Library.
The Endowment originated with $100,000 generated from book sales, and a vigorous income has allowed the Friends to continue their support to the present day. The ultimate goal, of course, is to grow a principal of sufficient size to provide the Bainbridge Library with a dependable yearly income.
Why?
The answer is evident in current rapid population growth on the Island, increasing use of the Library, and, most important, the intrinsic value the Library holds for the Community. Eighty-five percent of all Islanders carry a library card, and even those few who rarely make use of the Library recognize its place as a physical and cultural center, the heartbeat of the Community.
That’s why the Bainbridge Friends welcome donations to the Endowment. Whether you prefer to donate cash today or to leave a bequest in your will for the Endowment, you are supporting everything the Bainbridge Library means to the Community: a place that offers a warm welcome to all Islanders for learning, for discussion, for contemplation, and of course, a place to find the books they read.
Thank you,
The Bainbridge Island Friends of the Library