Dear Selection Committee,

The Willow Area Community Association (WACO) members would like to voice our support for selection of the Willow Public Library. We feel they meet or exceed the qualifications in many ways.

In 1964 the Willow Library Association (WLA) and WACO started fund raising, and with the help of several grants, construction began on Willow’s first dedicated library building. We outgrew that building, and a new library was build as an extension to our Community Center.

Willow has no town center—no real center at all—and the library/community center serves as the meeting point for both social and educational events. Where our own space is insufficient for our needs, the library will usually open it’s own rooms to accommodate the excess. WACO is also a volunteer organization, with no paid staff, and library personnel often act as caretaker/receptionist on our behalf.

Willow library is aggressive in promoting events for both adults and children; it also sponsors events with WACO whenever possible (winter movie nights is a case in point; the library has the site license and projection equipment, WLA and WACO pay for the license, provide the viewing space and refreshments). We have a Winter Carnival over two weekends each Jan/Feb, and the Library usually manages to stage children’s events that follow the theme selected for each year’s carnival. The WLA also helps by staffing one of the indoor tables, typically a mini‐raffle. In the summer the Library/WLA enter a float in the 4th of July parade.

Some of the common space hosts a laptop bar, for the 24/7 wireless internet provided by the library. That same internet service is extremely useful when the Community Center takes on it’s second role, as a rallying point in the event of fire or flood emergency. The WLA and WACO improved the common grounds by providing bicycle racks, encouraging young and old to take advantage of our many trails when visiting the library/center. So, in many ways, the Community Center compliments the Library, the Library the Community Center.

With highest recommendations,
Sincerely,
(signed) Linda Oxley, Chair