Mary Hurley

What a beginning to August! I’m sure you saw the story about our changes during the first week of August. What a week that was! Many thanks again to the Tocker Foundation and the Meredith Foundation for providing the funds to make this happen.

Monday began with board members, Friends of the Library, staff and terrific volunteers boxing up books while I hosted a meeting for 25 librarians in the Meredith Room. At 10 a.m. that morning, delivery of the parts to be assembled began to arrive. Monday evening, Boy Scout Troop 385 moved their meeting to our location and helped take down shelving to be replaced and cleaned where that shelving had been and helped when I got the bright idea to trim the hedges along the south side of the Library.

Tuesday brought generous help from the community when we were a couple of hundred boxes short. Boxes were loaned and donated and the task of removing books was completed while disassembly of the front desk took place. Our old desk did not go easily and the sawdust left did in our vacuum cleaner.

Wednesday saw the install crew putting things together and getting things in the correct space.

Thursday the install and carpet cleaning was completed. Quite a dance to get both accomplished.

Friday morning brought back the staff, board, friends, and volunteers to reload the shelves. Mineola High School sent several football players over to move the loaded boxes to the areas where their contents would be unloaded. By 5:30pm Friday afternoon, all books were back on the shelves.

We could not have accomplished this task if it were not for the many volunteers that came to the library and helped us. I won’t list names because I do not want to leave anyone out. We had a family that helped make boxes and disassemble boxes, we had a volunteer who bundled boxes for ease of storage, we had a volunteer bring donuts one day and ice cream another, we had volunteers who could do an hour here and an hour there.

Thank you to Mineola Public Works for allowing our business to dispose of larger items (the front desk) and to the garbage men who picked up an unbelievable amount of other trash.

We are grateful and humbled by the generosity of time, talent and energy shared with us during this week-long marathon. Thank you so very much, Mineola, you are awesome!

Mineola Memorial Library is a 501(c)3, nonprofit and donations are appreciated.

The Mineola Memorial Library received a memorial donation for Lou Mallory from Diane Pitkin.