That’s all she wrote for library gift shop
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/11/2022 (1386 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Friends of the Public Library is closing the book on its fundraising gift shop after 17 years.
The Best of Friends Gift Shop, located near the lobby of the downtown Millennium Library, will close in December. It’s holding a sale now.
Friends president Rita Burgess said the closure is not because they are verging on bankruptcy or concerned about downtown safety.
Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press Files
The Best of Friends Gift Shop, located near the lobby of the downtown Millennium Library, will close in December.
“The gift shop was and is profitable,” Burgess said on Wednesday. “It has been profitable all along. It is our volunteers and the changing face of volunteerism. To get people to commit on a regular basis is challenging. This isn’t a once-a-year event. It is a store and, not only do people volunteer there, but they also have to be trained. People don’t have that time commitment anymore.
“We’re all very sad about it.”
Funds raised by the Friends, in part through the gift shop, help it co-sponsor the library’s writer-in-residence program, as well as the annual spring break program and other library initiatives.
The organization has raised more than $345,000 in the past two decades.
The gift shop, open Thursday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., sold unique literary-themed tea and coffee cups, puzzles, games, bookmarks and jewelry.
In its place, the Friends have turned to trivia nights — it held a successful one last month — and it will have a used book cart at the downtown library on the last Saturday of every month. It will continue to hold the annual fundraising book sale.
They are once again accepting donations of used books, as well as DVDs, CDs and record albums, Burgess said. They can be dropped off in boxes — no bags — at any public library branch.
“We haven’t held a book sale since 2019, but we are looking at having one in 2023,” she said.
(Go to www.friendswpl.ca for a list of needed items.)
“The Friends are not going away. I want to assure people of that,” she said. “We still need to generate revenue to fund projects. It’s just the changing way of volunteers. Retired people are not here all year.”
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason was a general assignment reporter at the Free Press.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason was a general assignment reporter at the Free Press.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Related Articles
Playwright Koncan sets stage for support as new writer-in-residence
Advertisement Advertise With Us
