New Rochelle Library Celebrates Its Friends

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – The sun shined down on a beautiful autumn afternoon Saturday but Lavita Haskel, Amy Tietz and Ruth Green sat inside the New Rochelle Public Library volunteering at a book sale to raise funds so that programs such as Yoga Tots and Nursery Rhyme Time can be made available to the community.

The Friends of the New Rochelle Library, an all-volunteer nonprofit that supports the library, is being recognized for the services it provides, along with similar groups across the country, during National Friends of Libraries Week.  

“Everyone wants to be recognized,” said Tietz, who is co-president of the Friends, along with Linda Lamos. “What you want to hear is, ‘Thank you,’ and that’s why library week is important.”

Sunday marks the beginning of the sixth-annual National Friends of Libraries Week, which promotes Friends groups’ community outreach programs. During the week of Oct. 16 to 22, library staff members and their boards of trustees recognize the support that Friends groups give them.

The celebration is coordinated by the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF), a division of the American Library Association with approximately 5,000 individual members and affiliates representing hundreds of thousands of library supporters.

"I'm convinced that the libraries are so much richer for the enthusiasm and expertise that the Friends bring to the Library," ALTAFF Executive Director Sally Gardner Reed said in a statement. "I hope that libraries across the country will use this week to honor their best supporters – the Friends of their Library – and use this opportunity to promote and expand their membership in this valuable organization."

The next Friends of the New Rochelle Public Library book sale will be Nov. 4 and 5.

The organization’s book store is also open in the back of the facility on Tuesdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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