For over 56 years, the Friends of the West Tisbury library have supported library programs by holding an annual book sale. This year, after sorting and pricing the donations that have accumulated over the last year, I am compelled to write to thank the Island community for their generous support.

Almost 40 volunteers work for the month of July getting ready for the four-day sale. This year we grossed over $25,000 to support our library.

With the proceeds, the Friends provide patron amenities such as a water cooler and a copier as well as staff training, children and adult summer reading programs, website maintenance, materials purchases, art and music programs, etc.

There are so many people to thank, including the West Tisbury School for lending us their gym for a month and all the cheerful support of the office and janitorial staff, especially Wes Pikor. To Brian Kennedy and the community services program, we literally could not have done the setup and cleanup without you. And congratulations to Tim from West Tisbury who won the Harry Potter tote bag raffle.

Thanks to our own library staff and our marvelous volunteers, and especially to you who donated books and/or patronized the sale. Library offerings are so much richer for all our efforts. We’ll keep collecting books all year long for next year’s sale — drop donations off any time at our shed at the school. It’s marked “Book Donations.”

Susan Wasserman
West Tisbury