by Caroline Bredekamp for the Preston Times 

The library received three heavy boxes of books on Friday- coinciding with the start of the Holiday Festival and the start of the Advent and Christmas Season.  The books were received through a matching grant sponsored by the Pilcrow Foundation (Oregon).  After completing the form and telling how $400 was raised as the Preston Public Library’s share of the book costs, we received a positive response.  We were accepted and sent a booklet of booklet of titles for young children to teenagers in which we could choose $1200 in books from.  The $400 local match netted us triple the books for the money (In the letter they said our books were actually $1400 in retail value).  We also received two bonus books from the foundation and 17 Health and Wellness themed books from one couple and another 20+ books that were science and math based from another couple.  (So, we received well over $2000 in books from our request and local match). The staff has already sorted the books and added the Donated by stickers inside each and will then be added spine labels, stampings, and barcodes over the next couple weeks so they will be made available for check out.

How did we gain our local match?  As mentioned in our book sale posts this year, we stated that we had inherited Donelle Kilburg’s book collection after her (and John’s) unexpected passing.  A cart load of books was processed into the library collection, new items were used for summer reading prizes and for special drawings, and many were sold in our book sales.  We utilized and honored her collection as best we could. Proceeds from her collection garnered this set of wonderful books to be added into the collection during the Holiday Season.  As one of the pictures shows- the books 79 books will have “In Memory of Donnelle and John Kilburg” within.  Donelle had a love for reading and loved her grandchildren.  She made sure to expose them to books and the library whenever they had time together, so we believe this is a wonderful way to share the blessings that she held dear and to honor our friends.

In Memory of John and Donelle Kilburg.

 

Books for pre-school to high school aged students.

 

Non-fiction and fiction books for all ages are in the mix.

 

The entire delivery of books- it certainly felt like Christmas at the Preston Public Library.