"A Friend is What the Heart Needs All the Time" - Henry Van Dyke
We celebrated friendship, welcomed new friends, and proudly announced our beloved Guest Speaker, Miami Shores Memorial Brockway Library Director, Michelle Brown. Our meeting on Tuesday, February 7th was a packed program, but it was so enjoyable - time flew. Every guest was given a goodie bag filled with local swag from Rustic French Home, That's It Salon and our Village Starbucks. Salon Dahlia & CONTENT by Liangy gifted a V/Galentine themed basket to be raffled - which Sage Hoffman won and loved, by the way. Locals truly do it best. Thank you!
The meeting started with fabulous news. It is official, The Miami Shores Friendly Villagers has secured its 501(c3) designation. This opens up the door to more possibilities and advantages for our organization. Thank you to our member, Sunja Leon for being so diligent and processing our application. That being said, we have $9,000 to gift and we are currently accepting Grant Nomination Applications (submission deadline is March 7th, our next meeting). We encourage every member to participate. Not a member? not a problem - submit a New Member Application simultaneously with membership fee and the Grant Nomination Application. Both applications are available for download on our website (Mission page).
We had a full room and if we keep it up, we will have to move our meetings to a bigger room. A sign of good growing pains - and with that, I will mention that the membership decided to make it official and yours truly is now your Marketing Director. I am beyond thrilled and am very proud of the work we are doing. Looking forward to exciting times ahead.
Michelle Brown was wonderful. She delivered a very informative presentation, sharing that she has been working at Brockway for 25 years! She sure has been busy. She points out, that today, our almost historic and quaint library serves 7,000 members. That is amazing and I imagine that number will continue to grow now that the New Children's Wing is complete.
"My goal is to foster a connection between the Library and the many wonderful individuals and organizations in our community." -Michelle Brown
With her and her team's drive, Brockway was named one of the ten best libraries in Florida, by American Towns Media. In addition, the Miami Shores Village won the Florida League of Cities’ 2022 Florida Citizenship Award in recognition of the Library’s outstanding efforts in forming community partnerships to educate and inspire people to learn more about local history and the value of historic preservation.
She closed her presentation by reminding us that National Library Week this year takes place April 23-29. This year’s theme is, "There's More to the Story." She adds, "The American Library Association states that libraries are full of stories in a variety of formats from picture books to large print, audiobooks to ebooks, and more. But there's so much more to the story… Library programming brings communities together for entertainment, education, and connection through book clubs, storytimes, movie nights, crafting classes, and lectures. Library infrastructure advances communities, providing internet and technology access, literacy skills, and support for businesses, veterans, job seekers, and entrepreneurs."
For more information about Miami Shores Brockway Memorial Library's programming, visit www.msvfl.gov The Miami Shores Brockway Memorial Library is located at 10221 NE Second Avenue, Miami Shores, Florida 33138.
See you at the next meeting, which will be "All About the Arts in Miami Shores."
#BeFriendly, -Liangy