Catalog of Giving: Keizer library receives kids books
6:55 p.m. PST December 16, 2016
Children’s books, Spanish-language books and large print books were the three wish-list items the Keizer Community Library submitted to the Catalog of Giving.
This week, one of those wishes came true when a woman from Salem donated 29 hard-bound children’s books to the library, all of which were in Spanish.
“We are thrilled,” said Gayle Murria-Bachik, secretary of the library’s board of directors. “We love it when the greater Salem-Keizer area supports the library.”
The donor, a supporter of multi-lingual education, requested to remain anonymous so as “to give quietly.”
Every year, the Statesman Journal asks local nonprofits to provide a list of items that can be purchased and donated by individuals, families, neighbors and other community members, groups and businesses.
The wish lists are collected and presented in the annual Catalog of Giving on Thanksgiving.
Granted wishes have included large requests like a van, or small ones such as office copy paper.
For the Keizer Community Library, children’s books are almost always hard to come by.
Volunteers said this is because parents and grandparents usually keep children’s books and the books tend to be worn from children playing with them.
So to receive a donation of almost new, Spanish, children’s books of this quantity — more than doubling the library’s collection — was a big deal.
“A donation like this means so much to the volunteers who give their time,” said Murria-Bachik, explaining the donation will touch the lives of countless children and adults. “I guess it’s a double gift.”
The Keizer Community Library is run by about 40 volunteers. It became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 1996 as the Keizer Reading Connection (KRC), dedicated specifically to children.
The library recently received a grant they plan to use to buy more books, particularly Spanish-language books for adults since more than 14 percent of people in Keizer speak Spanish at home.
The library is ready and willing for more donations. If you are interested in donating to the Keizer Community Library, or crossing off other nonprofits’ wish-list items, check out the Catalog of Giving and related articles at www.StatesmanJournal.com/giving.
For more information about the library, go to keizerlibrary.org or call 503-390-2370.
Contact Natalie at npate@StatesmanJournal.com, 503-399-6745, or follow her on Twitter @Nataliempate, on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/nataliepatejournalist or on the Web at nataliepate.com.
Natalie Pate 