July 16, 2023

 

WHITEWATER

 

An effort to expand and renovate Whitewater’s Irvin L. Young Memorial Library is entering its fundraising home stretch.

At an event July 10, the library announced that it had raised $1.95 million toward a $2.25 million fundraising goal. That has come from a combination of library reserves, three local families and the 100 Extraordinary Women Campaign.

The library this week kicked off of a final phase of it capital campaign to raise the remaining needed $300,000 from community donations.

The city of Whitewater has additionally committed to contributing $3 million toward the $5.25 million total cost.
 
Goals of the expansion are to offer more accessibility for children, teens and families; more meeting spaces; and a larger makerspace area.

“We are almost there. With the help of the community, we’ll make sure that Whitewater has a library that serves all of the community well and will even more be a place where people can learn, create and gather,” said Jim Winship, chair of the capital campaign committee, said in a release.

According to Stacey Lunsford, director of the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library, has been with the library for 21 years, the top upgrade that community members said in surveys is needed is expanding early learning areas, including play centers and places for children to gather.

Second, survey results show that people want space to be together and learn from each other, whether it be book groups, study groups. Library planners have listened and will be providing larger meeting rooms with collapsible walls. Third, the community has asked for a larger makerspace area, which will accommodate a 3-D printer, a sewing machine, a laser dye cut machine, and more. In addition, the youth area will be expanded to give youth more study space.

There will also be additional accessibility to materials and the opportunity for community residents to learn the latest technology, among other skills.

“We are so grateful for the support shown for the project and for the library through this campaign. It gives us tremendous satisfaction when we provide something to people that fills a need or brings them joy. The expanded and transformed library will allow us to expand our ability to fill needs and, we hope, to transform the lives of users,” Lunsford said.

“This is a very exciting project for Whitewater. Expanding the knowledge base through the library is so worthwhile,” said Jim Caldwell of First Citizens State Bank.

One of the women who supported the Extraordinary Women Campaign, Rita Richardson, said “more and more, libraries are important to communities as a space safe as well as a learning space.”

“There are not a lot of places in the world where you have free access to books,” Richardson added.

Whitewater City Manager John Weidl said he is “thrilled for the library and the community to see how much progress has been made towards fundraising for the library’s renovation. A well-funded and functioning library is central to our city and our community’s education and literacy.

“Libraries foster productive and engaged community members and I’m looking forward to the next chapter of the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library story.”

Donations to this final capital campaign phase can be sent to: Whitewater Community Foundation, P.O. Box 428, 150 West Main Street, Whitewater, WI 53190. Donations can also be made online at 100extraordinarywomen.com. Donors can also purchase a paving brick or tile featuring an individual, family or business.

 View article here.