The shared summer reading theme at the Gilroy and Morgan Hill libraries is “Every Hero Has A Story.” Gilroy Librarian Elizabeth Munoz-Rosas believes the Friends of the Gilroy Library belong in that category. “The FGL are our heroes,” she said.
“For years and years and years the function of the FGL was to run a Saturday book sale,” said Jenny Howard, president of the FGL board. “All the money went straight to the library.”
It still does today. Funds from the monthly book sales, held every second Saturday of the month, is added to sales the FGL collects from their bookstore located inside the library.
Over the past two years, the FGL has collected between $17,000 and $20,000 dollars each year. The monies help fund many of the children’s programs, as well as helping the library in other areas, such as purchasing additional copies of current bestsellers.
“It augments their programs…it enriches them,” Howard said.
At the same time, the library repurposes some of their books and gives them to the store. “That’s a very typical friends-library relationship,” Howard said.
Isabel Jewell, previous board president and current FGL sale chair, has been involved with the organization since the mid 1980s. Every Thursday you’ll find Jewell and a few other volunteers sorting and stocking donated books for the bookstore.
A constant at every book sale, Jewell sees a number of regular shoppers, many of whom are teachers.
“They like to get the children’s books,” Jewell said. “They put them in their classroom, and sometimes they give those books to the children.”
Gilroy resident Karin Roberts is one of the regulars.
“I’ve been coming to the book sales for the past 22 years,” she said. “I always find something.”
