Recently, the community lost Mrs. Janet DeJung. If you aren’t familiar with that name, don’t worry. I wasn’t either! But she was a pretty important woman to the history of the library. She served for 23 years as our library director, following a decade of service from Ruby Dietzler.
In fact, the Cadott library has only had 9 directors since opening its doors on July 14th, 1956. Ruby retired before the library moved into its current location, making the move one of Janet’s first major projects as director. She also saw the library join the Indianhead Library System (now IFLS Library System). In 1990, Janet retired and Susan Sims took over. Only 4 years later, Dorothy Kaiser (who you can still often find patroning the library!), When Dorothy went for retirement, she was quickly followed a string of short-term directors: Jennifer Smith, Carrie Hopp, Paula Stanton, and Katelyn Noack. I was hired as the 5th director in 10 years in the fall in 2018.
However, I didn’t sit down to write a history of the library directors. As thrilling as that might be! Instead, I wanted to talk a little about memorial donations. How to make them and what we do with them. So, first, a big thank you to Mrs. DeJung’s family for directing memorials to the library in lieu of flowers. We have already received a number of them an appreciate the thoughtful.
Memorials and honorariums can be donated at any time, for whatever reason you choose. So, let’s say a fictional Joan Buckley is about to have a fifteen year work anniversary. Her sister would like to make a donation of $100 to the library in Joan’s name. Joan works in the IT industry and her sister would like the library to purchase materials on STEM learning and coding for kids, as well as materials on women in technology. Her sister makes the donation, I put together a cart of materials that I think will circulate, be of interest to people, and fill the criteria she selected. When they arrive, the materials get a little sticker with Joan’s name, and I post a thank you with photos of the materials on our social media. Oh, and of course I mention a thank you in an unboxing video.
If you’d like to make a donation but aren’t sure what kind of materials your loved one would have liked…no problem! Tell me some of their hobbies and I can go from there. Or, if you truly just want me to order whatever I feel like the library needs…I have a huge cart called “Later Purchase” just for when I have some extra funds. Generally, we like to match up items to the honored person’s interests, hobbies, or skills. As an example, when we got an honorarium for a former master cheese maker and western novel fan…guess what we bought?
Yup. Books about cheese and some (not William Johnstone!) westerns. (…We already have too many William Johnstone books. I needed some new names on the shelf!)
When my Great Uncle passed away, my Mom made a donation in his name and told me to order whatever I liked. Well, I’d found out that my uncle had been a writer! So, I ordered a few materials on writing.
And, we’re not limited to books! You could also sponsor a magazine subscription, DVDs, or audios. Were they a fan of games? A donation for our circulating card game collection might be prudent. Monies could also be used to sponsor a program/event like an author visit or craft tutorial, furnishings, technology purchases, etc.
Suffice to say: we’re flexible! I love to get an idea of what a person may have liked to pick up for themselves, but I also appreciate the freewill to purchase things we just generally wouldn’t be able to afford with our budget. We can put every dollar to a good use for the library itself, and the community. And every time that item is used: someone is reminded of your love one.
See our brochure here to learn more (in a slightly less wordy way!), or pick one up at the library.