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Lee Kepes, Vivian Honig and Susie
Rosenzveig sort books.
LLI
CO
LLI
1—*
Volunteers and
fund-raising re-open
the Henry and Delia
Meyers Memorial
Library at the
Maple-Drake JCC.
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JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
or three months, 11,000
volumes of Jewish and
secular books shelved at
the Maple-Drake Jewish
Community Center li-
brary sat behind locked
doors because the Center
could not afford to staff
the facility.
A brief fund-raising effort by
a committee called the Friends
of the Library generated the
$12,000 necessary to allow the
library doors to re-open.
To celebrate, the JCC will
host an official ceremony from 1-5 p.m.
during the daylong Israel Indepen-
dence Day Festival on Sunday, May
21, at the Maple-Drake campus.
"This library plays an important
role both inside and outside the Jew-
ish community," said Vivian Honig,
the newly hired part-time librarian.
"We are re-opening it thanks to the ef-
forts of a lot of people. It's exciting."
Ms. Honig volunteered in the Hillel
Day School Library for 15 years and
currently teaches at Shaarey Zedek
Hebrew High School.
The JCC library, called the Henry
and Delia Meyers Memorial Library,
annually circulates about 10,000
books. It closed on Feb. 1 to help the
JCC avoid a $450,000 projected deficit.
Center President Douglas Bloom said
funds for the library had to be cut be-
"Our goal is to
keep the library open
between 40 and 50
hours a week."
— Chris Lewis
cause it was not generating any direct
revenue for the JCC. Senior services
and the Discovery Room were other
areas that received cuts.
The library is one of the first ser-
vices to be reinstated because of the
efforts of Friends of the Library, a
group co-chaired by longtime Center
users Lee Kepes and Susie Rosenzveig.
However, the $12,000 their com-
mittee raised will only support the li-
brary for one year. Center officials hope
an on-going library fund will keep the
doors open.
New library hours are Monday, 11
a.m.-3 p.m.; and Tuesday-Friday, 9
a.m.-2 p.m.
"Through our volunteers, we are
hoping to augment the library hours,"
said JCC Cultural Arts Director Chris (/
Lewis. "Our goal is to train enough vol-
unteers to keep the library open be-
tween 40 and 50 hours a week."
Ms. Honig will offer volunteer train-
ing sessions on May 25 and June 1.
In the months the library doors
were closed, Ms. Lewis honored a
dozen requests for library materials
on a weekly basis.
Individuals interested in volun-
teering should call (810) 661-7639
or 661-7632.