Miss Nancy's Dedication Ceremony and Open House

 

5-17-2024

On September 18, 2023 the East Troy community and the East Troy Lions Public Library in particular suffered a great loss. That is the day children’s librarian Nancy O’Connell passed away. At the library we felt the loss of Nancy’s guidance and roots. I called her the consummate hostess. Nancy knew everyone’s name, made them welcome, and stopped anything she was doing to provide excellent service to patrons.

Judging by the attendance at her service, tears there and at the library, and flood of donations, the community appreciated that dedication. Thanks to the family’s request for donations to the library in lieu of flowers, the ETLPL and the Friends of the ETLPL received a total of $5,928. The majority of those funds were spent on a bronze bench/statue and landscaping that will surround it under our flagpole. The children’s programming area in our Lower Level will also be dedicated to her. For that reason, additional funds were used to give the lower level its recent facelift: paint and additional shelving.

Putting all of the pieces together has taken quite some time; however, we are finally at the place to arrange for a dedication ceremony and celebrate our friend.

That celebration will be on June 8^th beginning at 11:00. Speeches regarding the dedication will begin at 11:15 first from me, Director Bartoli, followed by Nancy’s daughter Jenny. Her sons will also be present until 1:00.

Preparing the Lower Level was definitely an example of when it takes a Village (of East Troy) all of whom need to be thanked beginning with all the patrons, family and friends who made donation in Nancy’s name. The Friends of the ETLPL who added their donations and pledged their own funds to replace furniture (fingers crossed this will arrive before June 8^th. Friends member Mike Zei who doesn’t attend meetings but thankfully does read the minutes. Mike volunteered his time and that of his family, Marge and Jeff Fornear, to do the painting.  

The East Troy Lions Club made an unrelated donation last fall, but deserve thanks in this article as part of that donation went to shelves and will be used for an area rug once we have furniture to match. Jim Gitz and Cole Marcinkevic gave their time to help with the shelf madness. Employees of the Village’s DPW provided muscle and mounted the shelves for safety’s sake. Martin’s Hardware gave us a deal on the paint.

Daniel K, a 2^nd grade patron, assembled an 814-piece Lego flower arrangement in Nancy’s honor that will be displayed in our Lego area. Scott Iloncaie of Dynamic Awards, who never wants to see another Lego, made certain the flower arrangement will remain intact and created a shadow box in which to display it as well as dedication plaques. Outside, Benchmark donated paving stones and labor for the bench and landscaping around it.

Summer programming kicks off Monday, June 10^th, so we wanted to take a day of remembrance before the chaos begins.

 Reading Now: Dona Barbara by Romulo Gallegos (Fingers crossed the last week. Made it past the slow start in about four weeks and read 200 pages this week; 200 to go.)

Listening to now: Captive on the Fens by Joy Ellis (Book #6 in the DI Nikki Galena series)