THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603190113
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Random Rambles
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
When Carrollton folks learned a while back that they were going to lose the lease on their tiny library, it was time to get busy and move on.
The existing library sits like a guardhouse at the entrance to Carisbrooke, the residential development on U.S. Route 17, just before you cross the James River Bridge to go to the Peninsula.
But, over the years, the need for library services for people throughout Carrollton had outgrown the small building. So, the Friends of the Carrollton Library got started making plans to go on to bigger and better things.
The latest part of their plan, to raise a total of $700,000 to build a new, 5,800-square-foot library with a capacity for 20,000 books, is an auction to be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Carrollton Elementary School on April 13.
Head librarian Joyce Howard is currently having fun showing everybody who will stop and talk to her all of the auction items that will be on sale that day.
Last week, she had her husband's 1936 Ford (the car's not for sale, unfortunately) packed with dolls, afghans, stained glass, lamps, an original piece of artwork by P. Buckley Moss, autographed books and a huge poster touting the cruise donated by the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines on the Nordic Empress.
So far, Howard said, more than 2,000 letters have been mailed to individuals and businesses in the Carrollton area asking for support. The county has budgeted $300,000 toward the construction cost.
The Friends have received about $10,500 in cash donations and $8,500 in pledges so far. In order to begin construction, the organization needs a total of $450,000 by July 31; $131,000 must be raised in the next three months.
The auction could bring in a good bit of that amount. All the Carrollton library effort needs now is the support of local residents.
Auctioneer Jim Abicht has donated his services for the event. Local individuals and business have donated items to be auctioned, and support has come from outside of the community as well.
Dorothy Wilkins, laughing, said earlier this week that she is ``brain weary'' from having talked to so many people. Her husband, Dallas, is chairman of the auction. He first got involved in January, but the Wilkinses have been friends of the library - as well as members of the official organization - since they moved from Portsmouth about 10 years ago.
``I owe almost everything I have ever learned in life to the public library,'' she said. ``I took a GED test and passed with flying colors. I learned to crochet, to type. When we moved here and found this library up the road, we used it continuously.''
Dorothy has been doing most of the talking, calling businesses in neighboring Hampton Roads cities and asking for support, since the effort first began.
In collecting items for the auction, Wilkins said, she's been the ``mouth;'' her husband has been the ``legs,'' tromping from city to city to make the pickups, locating a storage place to keep the items until the auction takes place, gathering it all together.
The new library will be on county-owned land next to the Carrollton Elementary School. Howard said it will be completely computerized, with individual study carrels.
Donations of items to be auctioned are still being accepted. For more information, call either 238-3479 or 238-3650. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Librarian Joyce Howard displays items that will be auctioned.
by CNB