Friends of the Library
The Friends of the St. Lucie County Library Association, Inc., is a non-profit organization of volunteers who support the County's Library System, a group of people who love books, love to read, and want to help others enjoy the pleasure of reading.
Anyone can and should be a member of the Friends of the Library.
Members will receive an invitation to the Annual Dinner Meeting and other special notices about programs sponsored by the Friends. As a Friend you may also be a volunteer. We welcome your assistance in any area in which you may wish to participate.
What the Friends of the Library Do.......
- Funded the creation and hosting of the Library System's original website.
- Support efforts for Lifelong Learning via Learn to Read of St. Lucie County's Adult Literacy programs and the Lifelong Literacy Coalition of St. Lucie County.
- Offer scholarship consideration to staff interested in Library and Information Studies.
- Host the annual Volunteer Luncheon.
- Lobby for funding for additional library services and programs.
- Save tax dollars by providing needed equipment and services for the St. Lucie County Library System, its employees and patrons.
- Present the free "Florida Authors" series and sponsor an Annual Dinner Meeting with a guest speaker.
- Encourage donation of gifts, memorial bequests and tributes from local residents.
- Coordinated the Capital Fund Campaign for the Fort Pierce Branch Library.
Board of Directors:
Carnelle Clifton, President
Pat Giordano, Director
Lucille M. Howard, Vice-President
Veronica Lacoparra, Assistant Treasurer
Helen Lightner, Director
Bertha Perez, Director
Padrick Pinkney, Treasurer
Carla Robinson, Secretary
Dorothy Walker, Director
James Wilder, Director
Paula Lewis, Representative of Board of County Commissioners
Rudy Widman, Representative of Library Advisory Board
Susan Jacob, Library Manager, Ex-officio Member
Membership levels:
Individual......................$10.00
Family...........................$25.00
Patron.........................$100.00 (Member will receive a bookmark)
Sponsor.......................$250.00 (A book will be purchased in your name)
Benefactor..................$500.00 (Member will receive name on a memorial plaque)
You will receive a membership card and an invitation to the Annual Dinner Meeting in October which features a Florida author or local speaker. The Annual Membership renewal date is October 1st.
Send your check to:
Friends of the St. Lucie County Library Association, Inc.
101 Melody Lane
Fort Pierce, FL 34950-4402
Your contribution to the Friends of the St. Lucie County Library Association, Inc., is tax-deductible.
Friends Annual Dinner Meeting 2011
The Friends of the St. Lucie County Library Association, Inc., held their 31st annual dinner meeting on Thursday evening, October 27, 2011, at the Pelican Yacht Club, 1120 Seaway Drive, Fort Pierce. Cocktails and hors d'œuvres were served beginning at 5:30 p.m. (cash bar), dinner at 6:15 p.m. Entrée selections were: Chicken Murat or Pasta Primavera (vegetarian), served with salad, chef's choice of vegetables, dessert, coffee or tea.
The guest author for the evening was Carl Hiaasen. Mr. Hiaasen was born and raised in Florida where he still lives with his family. A graduate of the University of Florida, at age 23 he joined The Miami Herald as a general assignment reporter and went on to work for the paper's weekly magazine and later its prize-winning investigations team. Since 1985 Hiaasen has been writing a regular column, which at one time or another has pissed off just about everybody in South Florida, including his own bosses. He has outlasted almost all of them, and his column still appears on most Sundays in The Herald's opinion-and-editorial section. It may be viewed online at www.miamiherald.com or in the actual printed edition of the newspaper, which, miraculously, is still being published. For his journalism and commentary, Hiaasen has received numerous honors, including the Damon Runyon Award from the Denver Press Club and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Hiaasen’s work has also appeared in many well-known magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Time, Life, Esquire and, most improbably, Gourmet.
In the early 1980s, he began writing novels with his good friend and a distinguished journalist, the late William D. Montalbano. Together they produced three mystery thrillers -- Powder Burn, Trap Line and A Death in China -- which borrowed heavily from their own reporting experiences. Tourist Season, published in 1986, was Hiaasen's first solo novel. GQ magazine called it "one of the 10 best destination reads of all time," although it failed to frighten a single tourist away from Florida. His next effort, Double Whammy, was the first (and possibly the only) novel about sex, murder and corruption on the professional bass-fishing circuit.
Since then, Hiaasen has published Skin Tight, Native Tongue and eight national bestsellers -- Strip Tease, Stormy Weather, Lucky You, Sick Puppy, Basket Case, Skinny Dip, Nature Girl and, most recently, Star Island. Hiaasen made his children's book debut with Hoot (2002), which was awarded a Newbery Honor and spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller lists. For young readers he went on to write Flush (2005) and Scat (2009). Chomp, a new novel for young readers, will be published by Knopf in early 2012.
Hiaasen is also responsible for Team Rodent (1998), a wry but unsparing rant against the Disney empire and its creeping grip on the American entertainment culture. In 2008, Hiaasen came back to nonfiction with The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return to a Ruinous Sport. The book chronicles his harrowing and ill-advised reacquaintance with golf after a tranquil 32-year absence.
To prove that he doesn't just make up all the sick stuff in his fiction, Hiaasen has also published two collections of his newspaper columns, Kick Ass and Paradise Screwed, both courageously edited by Diane Stevenson and faithfully kept in print by the University Press of Florida. In 2011, the Florida Humanities Council presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing.
Corporate Sponsors
Howard W. Schneider, Library Benefactor
The story of Howard W. Schneider is a heartwarming, uplifting one. He appeared to be a man of modest means, living at the old Biltmore Hotel, searching through trash cans for treasures and visiting the former Main Library every day. Librarian Pat McManus became his friend through their daily encounters, and when he became ill, even visited him at the hotel shortly before his death in 1978. Upon his death it was discovered that Mr. Schneider was a retired forester with considerable assets. In his will he left instructions for the St. Lucie County Library Association, Inc., to receive $240,000. This fund is entrusted to management by the Friends of the St. Lucie County Library Association, Inc., Board of Directors. The Friends have paid for many wonderful items, including $60,000 for the Zora Neale Hurston Branch Library property, the Florida Collection for the Morningside Branch, luncheons for the Library volunteers, copiers in all the Library locations, and many other necessary projects.