At Tuesday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Picton, members and guests heard from Alexandra Bake and Barbara Sweet regarding the Picton Public Library branch expansion and current fundraising initiatives.

Bake, the Picton Library expansion fundraising committee chair, and Sweet, CEO of the County of Prince Edward Public Library and the County Archives, offered an update on the current expansion to the  Picton Public Library and where the committee are in terms of their fundraising.

“We are excitingly close to completing our Picton Library addition,” Sweet said to Picton Rotary. “It was almost five years ago we started our campaign, and quick frankly and secretly, I did not know how we were going to achieve a goal of $2.8 million raised. Thanks to Alexandra (Bake) and her fundraising team, and thanks to a generous community, we have made it.”

Within the next couple of weeks, the Picton Library is hoping to receive a certificate of completion for the new addition and start welcoming patrons to the bright new space overlooking Delhi.

“Once we have that in hand, we will move our library into our new space and work on the existing building will commence,” added Sweet.

The Library is happy to be getting some space back once the addition is complete and will be able to return to business as usual.

“Over the past many months, we’ve been very hammered by a lack of space, even more so than usual,” Sweet said. “We moved out of the downstairs of the library to allow work to start there when we were delayed by deliveries from weather on the new build, and this meant that we’ve not been able to conduct our usual programming, we could not offer any public washrooms and with our upcoming move we will return to business as usual.”

The library will be offering many more new and returning programs and services.

“One program people have been anxiously awaiting for its return is the newcomers club,” said Sweet. “This very successful program introduces newcomers to the community and all that Prince Edward has to offer. We invite speakers from local service clubs and agencies so new arrivals are aware of the opportunities to become involved in this community.”

With the opening of the new addition of the Picton Library, there will be public washrooms available on Main Street again. Each floor has two washrooms, one is fully accessible, and one is within the children’s room complete with change table.

“The children’s room has been expanded and now has an infant section,” Sweet stated. “There will be three bookable meeting rooms free to all non-profits, and our large flex space on the lowest level has a capacity of 60 people and is suitable for use for exercise classes, authors readings, or many applications. The computer lab and maker space area on the second level with offer, besides computers, 3D printing, an embroidery machine, a vinyl cutter, photocopier and laser cutter. Tech staff are on hand to instruct and assist.”

On the same floor of the computer lab and maker space is a sound proof room with recording equipment and virtual reality gear.

The reading room, which has been used as an office the past few years, will be restored to its original use.

“We will have more books, the collection will be bigger,” added Sweet.

In her comments, Bake looked back at the challenges of fundraising for a building that’s owned and a service that’s maintained by the municipality and  added it’s not an easy sell to ask for money to support the library.

“It’s a municipal service primarily supported by our taxes, and people don’t really understand, or didn’t understand why they needed to support it,” Bake said. “Further more, libraries are not eligible for so many of the grants and public money that are available for other not-for-profits and institutions such as hospitals. Libraries cannot benefit from lotteries, and we in PEC due to our nature of our community, are not always eligible for Trillium grants.”

Once the construction budget was set at $2.8 million, the Library recognized they were going head-to-head with the Back the Build campaign for the hospital, as well as other charities within the community.

“The one thing that we really discovered was our generous community loves a challenge,” stated Bake. “So our most successful fundraising tool without a doubt, became our annual matched funds campaign. Starting in October 2018, an anonymous donor challenged us to raise $100,000 in matched funds. And for each successive of fall and winter season we’ve been able to find a sponsor for a matched campaign, which ended last year in December with a matched fund challenge from Home Hardware.”

By the end of December 2022, the final tally of funds raised was a wonderful $2,848,000 and the original expansion goal was met. Inevitably however there are cost overruns and delays due to COVID so the fundraising story is not quite over for the library.”

With he short gap in mind, the Library will be holding a final fundraising event called ‘Swing Into The Future’, a celebration gala that will be hosted at Base31 in the Sergeant’s Mess Hall May 13.

“This is a truly fitting space for us to hold our celebration gala in,” Bake said. “Because both Base31 and the Picton Library have reimagined historic spaces to bring them both into the 21st century, with respect for the past and an eye to the future.”

The $200 ticket price includes a complementary glass of sparkling wine, cocktail nibbles, canapé’s, an oyster bar and music by Brian Barlow and Hannah Birch. A cash bar will also be available featuring classic 1940’s era cocktails.

“We’re encouraging guests to dress up in period costume and we will have a photo booth and vintage vehicles for you to pose beside,” said Bake. “But if dressing up is not your thing then come as you are and join in the fun, because really, like the library, everyone is welcome.”

“We’re poised to enter an exciting new era in the life of this 116 year old building and we look forward to opening this space up for the enjoyment of the residents of Prince Edward County for years to come,” Sweet added. “The library has something for everyone from infant to senior, your new Picton branch will fulfil our mission statement to enrich lives by fostering life long learning and ensuring that every member of the community has access to a vast array of ideas, information and resources.”

“Libraries tug at our heart strings,” voiced Bake. “We are all connected in a very real way to the library, and share stories about our experiences with them, either as children, young parents or older members of the communities, because they weave their way into the fabric of our community. And the library in PEC with its six branched, has certainly done an exceptional job at maintaining its relevance for all members of our community.”

For more information on the Picton Public Library expansion please visit https://www.peclibrary.org/expansion/

For more information on the gala or to get tickets please visit https://www.peclibrary.org/swing-into-the-future-gala/