The Scottsbluff Public Library has a new name. It is now the Lied Scottsbluff Public Library thanks to a marvelous grant from the Lied Foundation Trust and Miss Christina M. Hixson, Trustee. The library is renamed and dedicated to the memory of Ernst F. Lied and his parents, Ernst M. and Ida K. Lied. This is the gift that allows the building project to proceed. All who have dreamed of this for so many years cannot find words to express our deep gratitude for this gift as well as so many other gifts given by foundations, trusts, local donors and on and on. There are way too many to thank in this article, but they know who they are.
Today, I want to extend a special thank you to the school children of the Twin City area that helped make this dream a reality. We will probably never know how many additional donations resulted from their efforts to raise money for the library. Let me list just a few of their efforts, going back several years.
The first surprise gift was from Mrs. Smith’s 8th grade Family Consumer Science class in 2007. They raised money by selling concessions and gave it to the library. Along the way we had several surprises. When former library board member Sue Waite retired from teaching, one of her classes raised money for the library in her honor. All the schools in Scottsbluff and several of the surrounding schools had fundraisers.
Longfellow Elementary raffled Mystery Baskets at Parent-Teachers Conference.
Westmoor’s 3rd Graders donated money at Christmas instead of exchanging presents.
Lincoln Heights 5th graders sold suckers as did the Westmoor 3rd grade.
Roosevelt School read like crazy for the Read-a-thon and so did students from Westmoor, Longfellow, BMS, Lake Alice, Lake Minatare, Community Christian, Lincoln Heights, St. Agnes and the YMCA preschool.
Lake Alice and Lake Minatare made bookmarks and sold them at Culvers.
St. Agnes’ Guiding Star Girl Scouts donated their cookie sales money.
Bluffs Middle School 6th graders sold snacks during lunch and donated their money to the library.
TAC (Teen Advisory Council) did numerous fundraisers. One that was tremendous fun was Beauty Parlor Day.
Our Adopt-a-School partner Gering Pre-school donated proceeds from their Game Night.
“Paving with Pennies” took on a life of its own. What a tremendous turnout! Banks
ran short of pennies, and we here at the library were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the kids. Students from all over were involved. Four schools Roosevelt, Longfellow, Westmoor and ESU 13 – Meridian Program all showed up with their donations at once. Even our “Story Time Buddies”, including Kids First Preschool, became involved and brought pennies. I will never forget the “Wagon Train” from Longfellow with signs like “Pennies Ho”. It was tremendous fun and even the Omaha “World-Herald” picked up the story. Friends from all over Nebraska asked me about it.
“Paving with Pennies” did more than just bring in several thousand dollars to the library building fund. During a phone conversation with the Lied Foundation Trust, this one event was mentioned as impressing them. Foundations have hearts too. I will always believe that it was through the efforts of children and teens that we received a grant from them.
I could write a book about the past two years and the effort to raise money for this project. Believe me when I say, “I would like to be done,” but the effort continues. We still need money for furnishings, technology, landscaping and books. Thanks to the kids, however, we can build a library for them and their children and their children’s children. THANK YOU KIDS FROM YOUR LIBRARY—THE LIED SCOTTSBLUFF PUBLIC LIBRARY!
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Scottsbluff Public Library :: 1809 Third Avenue :: Scottsbluff, NE 69361 :: 308-630-6250