Friends of the Centralia Timberland Library have spent decades helping the library better serve the community, but if the group goes inactive in January, a lot of events and services they fund will follow them.
“They’re essential, not just important. They help us meet our mission ... for various programs,” said Centralia Timberland Library Manager Selina Gomez-Beloz. “If they go inactive, that means an important funding source goes away for this particular building.”
Through book sales and membership signups, the friends group helps pay for summer performances, movie matinees for children and the library’s annual children’s pet show.
“We have funding for programs, but it’s very minimal,” Gomez-Beloz said.
Because the library’s program fund is so small, losing the friends group’s support would mean going from a featured performer every week for six weeks in the summer down to only two in an entire summer.
“The community has come to appreciate those events,” Gomez-Beloz said.
If the group goes inactive, the two-day book sales, the most recent of which earned the library over $800, would cease until the group is revived. Evie Shinall, president of Friends of the Centralia Timberland Library, said the group has dozens of members, many of whom volunteer for events, but no one new has decided to step into leadership roles that are crucial to the group’s survival.
The group needs a vice president, secretary, treasurer and membership chairperson. For the last two years, three people have occupied five positions, but two are stepping away — leaving only Shinall to run things. She’s thinking about stepping down in January.
“We would feel bad if it had to go inactive. We tried so hard to get people but it just hasn’t worked,” Shinall.
Although the commitment is one meeting a month and for the book sales, Shinall theorizes that the economy still makes it difficult for people to get involved.
“In so many families it takes two people to bring home the bacon,” Shinall said. “Many years ago it was the woman in the home that had all the free time, now (retirees) are the ones picking up these volunteer positions.”
