Category: Community Service Award

FRL Frances Rapin Community Service Award for 2023

James Cech presenting Martha Longshore with the Frances Rapin Community Service Award.Friends of the Redwood Libraries’ (FRL) Frances Rapin Community Service Award is granted yearly in the name of a local resident deemed to have contributed extraordinarily to the local community in support of literacy, literature, educational programs, libraries and the “Friends.” The award is a $2,000 contribution to the Humboldt County Libraries in the awardee’s name. The award winner is encouraged to offer guidance to the library in how the funds will be used.

Having no advertising budget, FRL is challenged to inform the community about its activities. Quarterly newsletters are sent out, but these go only to members. To reach the greater community FRL relies on its website to spread word of its activities including book sales, calendar sales, operating hours of Serendipity, book donation policies, and access to online sales. Given its importance, an up-to-date web presence is critical. And FRL has been extremely fortunate to have the generous support of a highly talented web master.

Martha Longshore, a published author, has assisted FRL with her expertise for numerous years. She willingly takes semi-cryptic requests and converts them to coherent news updates. She readily adjusts web page menus at the whim of the FRL board. She updates sales dates, happily removing old ones to replace with new ones as soon as requested. She keeps policy document links up to date and has efficiently worked with FRL through the myriad of changes in operations, practices, availability, and open hours through the challenges of the Covid pandemic. For these reasons, for 2023, the FRL board of directors chose Martha Longshore to receive the Frances Rapin Community Service Award.

By James Cech

FRL Frances Rapin Community Service Award for 2022

The Friends of the Redwood Libraries Board of Directors is pleased to honor a long-time volunteer, Kay Belschner, with the 2022 Frances Rapin Community Service Award. Each year FRL honors an individual or organization that supports directly or indirectly literary activities in the community.

The board selected Ms. Belschner as a way to thank and honor her for innumerable hours dedicated to FRL efforts to support the Humboldt County Libraries. Even prior to the board’s creation of an official book sale coordinator, Ms. Belschner was the point person responsible for organizing the volunteer team that set up, carried out, and cleaned up each of the quarterly book sales. Until recently, this included two very distinct spaces at the Eureka Main Library. It meant recruiting sufficient volunteers for two different setup days, two two-day sales teams, and two cleanup teams. But there was more than just organizing the books. FRL rosters had to be procured, cash boxes in place, signage produced, posters organized, and general publicity. Volunteers assisted in all of these various tasks, Chris Cooper (L) Director of Library Services, accepts a check for $2,000 from Kay Belschner, recipient of the 2022 Frances Rapin Community Service Award. Kay and the Library Staff will decide how the money will be used. James Cech (R), President of FRL, explained how much Kay has done for the Library and the Friends, and presented her with a certificate and the check for the Library.but someone must always oversee, encourage, and make sure everything is done.

If you attended any FRL quarterly book sale during the past seven or more years, you almost assuredly saw Ms. Belschner. She would spend most of two days each sale watching the sale unfold, restocking boxes of books, fielding questions, covering for emergencies, and ensuring that everything ran as smoothly as possible. Holding sales quarterly also means uncertainty related to weather. Flexibility was critical, and Ms. Belschner was adept at adopting modifications as needed on the fly.

From the Friends of the Redwood Libraries Board of Directors perspective, Herculean efforts to keep our book sales organized and productive represent an essential community service. This is why we are thrilled to honor Kay Belschner with the 2022 Frances Rapin Community Service Award.

Community Service Award

Liberry PreservesThe Community Service award this year will be presented to Cary and Robin Bartlett, owners of Mad River Farm. These are the people who make the delicious Liberry Preserves. The Friends will present $2,000 to the Library, and Cary and Robin can choose how it is to be used. If you haven’t tried Liberry Preserves, you can find them in the Serendipity Book Store, upstairs in the Eureka Main Library. 

Community Service Award 2014

FRL 2014 COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD GOES TO THE WOMEN OF CENTRAL OFFICE—THE COPY CENTER

Whenever the need arises to solve a problem or get a design idea for our printing projects we go to Terry, Lynette and Terri at The Central Office—the Copy Center, in Eureka, and we are never disappointed.

Terry Davis and Lynette Worthington have run of The Central Office for over 27 years. Terry and Lynette bought the office 14 years ago, and Terri Vanderhoff has been part of the team for all of those years.

While we at the Friends of the Redwood Libraries like to think we are “the favored ones”, we also know that these fabulous women are there to help all local organizations and businesses with their printing, be it brochures, newsletters, calendars (yes, our Children’s Art Calendar), and all printing projects.

We are proud and happy to present the FRL Community Service Award to The Women of Central Office—The Copy Center.

Central Office Employees

THANK YOU: Terry Davis and Lynette Worthington, Manager/Owners; and Terri Vanderhoff