Phone: 608-362-9593
Recognition Dinner 2017
Every year, RSVP hosts a Recognition Dinner to celebrate another year all of our volunteers help the community. There is music, dancing, great food and a wonderful auction and raffle items. Here are a few pictures from the event:
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- Buy some more tickets from Patty!
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- The guests arriving.
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- Celebrity Servers
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- Norma Olin 20 yrs of volunteering.
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- Eva Arnold Ready to check the list
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- Carol Logan 20 Yrs of Volunteering.
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- Yoshiko Glos 25 Yrs of volunteering.
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- William Eberhardt 30 Yrs of volunteering
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- What a crowd!
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- Karen Starling 20 years of volunteering
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- Servers hard at work.
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- Judy Robson checking out the Silent Auction.
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- So many raffles to choose from.
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- The Best Valet team around!
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- Robert Harlow with Kathryn Gove who was recognized for her 35 yrs of volunteering.
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- And the winner is….
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- Getting ready for the big night!
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- Yoshiko Glos 25 Yrs of volunteering.
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- John Solis for your listening pleasure.
Local group runs bookstore in library
By ERIN KELLY Staff writer | Posted: Tuesday, September 6, 2016 4:00 pm
Friends at Beloit Library Treasurer Kris Grutzner organizes books in one of the non-profit’s rooms in the Beloit Public Library on Monday. The books are organized by author and genre for the Super Second Saturday book sale Sept. 12. Books are also sold during the library’s hours near the check outs.
Beloit Public Library’s hidden gem
BELOIT — Friends at Beloit Library isn’t the most visible organization in Beloit. It organizes books in an office on the second floor of the Beloit Public Library and in a warehouse on the first floor and doesn’t have any flashy signs or attention-grabbing colors near their few permanent bookshelves across from the library’s check out on the first floor.
“A lot of people don’t even realize we have this wonderful bookstore in our library,” FABL treasurer Kris Grutzner said.
With about 30 volunteers who put in a combined total of approximately 275 hours a month, the organization has raised $19,235 as of the end of July to be used for projects that might otherwise remain unfunded ideas.
FABL is a nonprofit that manages a bookstore in the library. The books they sell are either discarded from the library or donated. Funds are used for projects such as the summer library club, book clubs, performers who visit the library and contests.
“We try to make sure that all of our money is used for the public, because we want our library to be friendly,” Grutzner said. “We want people to come to our library.”
Grutzner estimates they’ve sold about 30,000 to 50,000 books in 2015, which makes her extremely happy, she said.
“We didn’t think we would be able to raise that type of money,” she said.
The bookstore sells all sorts of genres such as romance, history, art, animals, mystery, cookbooks and science fiction. The bookstore also sells more than just books, such as DVDs, audiobooks, CDs, VHS tapes and bookbags.
FABL’s permanent shelves near the checkout have books that are sold whenever the library is open, but each month, FABL hosts a special event they call Super Second Saturday Sales.
“It’s a way for us to clean house and make sure we get books in people’s hands,” Grutzner said.
The next few sales are from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m on Sept. 10 and Oct. 8.
Hardcover books are sold for 50 cents and paperback and children’s books are sold for 25 cents.
All the books at the Sept. 10 sale will not have been in previous sales, Grutzner said.
FABL used to host a big annual sale but decided to change it to much smaller monthly sales to make it easier on volunteers.
Grutzner said there are all sorts of goodies to find at the sales.
“I always say it’s like Christmas, because you never know what book you’ll find,” she said.
