North Adams Library Furniture Purchased in Teacher's Memory
A table with a plaque dedicating it to the late Joan Ellen Rivers.
Spending time in the library was important to longtime teacher Joan Ellen Rivers. And now future generations of North Adams Public Library patrons will be able to enjoy their stay a little bit better because of furniture purchased in her memory.
Friends of the North Adams Public Library members Ellen Smachetti and Judy Noel said in the past there wasn't really any place to sit in the Children's Library.
"There were no comfortable chairs here and a lot of kids come with their parents so they needed these chairs,” Smachetti said. "Now kids find books and bring them over to their parents before there was just nowhere to sit."
But thanks to Rivers and her friends and family this is no longer the case.
Rivers, who died in 2015 at the age of 67, taught in the North Adams Public Schools and was a member of the Friends. Smachetti said Rivers was always in the library.
"Like a lot of teachers she spent a lot of time in the library using its resources here because school libraries don't always have what you need," Smachetti said. "She was a pretty avid reader on her own, too."
Smachetti said Rivers' family decided to ask for donations to the library in her memory. Nearly $3,000 was raised to fit the library with new chairs and tables. One of the tables has a small plaque in memory of Rivers "From your family and friends at Jiminy Peak."
Jiminy Peak also donated an iPad media station in her memory. Smachetti said Rivers was adventurous and an avid skier.
With a tighter city budget, there are many things the library has to go without, said Noel. But through fundraising, in-kind donations and memorial funds such as those for Rivers, the Friends are able to improve the library.
"Many of the programs, materials and furniture is purchased through us, and the whole library is enhanced by the donations," Noel said. "The library has actually been able to build some of its more comfortable areas through community donations."
Smachetti said the library is always a good place to donate to because everything the Friends collect goes right back to the community.
"We raise money for the library," she said. "We have funded concerts and programs, and whatever we get goes right back to the community. We do well and I think that people appreciate the library and support it. It really is a community library."
Tags: fundraising, library, memorial donations, NAPS,
