Giving

Visitors of Crawfordsville District Public Library and the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County benefit greatly from the kindness and generosity of folks and businesses that donate their time, products, and money to library and museum programs, equipment, and collection materials.

Volunteers donate their time to assist with STEM programs at the museum, take borrowed materials to library patrons who are homebound, or organize and run the library’s monthly book sales. Proceeds of these book sales fund the Trail Tales (with the exception of a Farm Bureau-sponsored tale) and purchase supplies and prizes for the library’s reading programs. Summer reading would not be the same great program without the selfless energy of the book sale volunteers!

Empathic giving can be inspired by stories of real individuals making a difference in their communities or globally. Such stories can be found in the following titles from the library’s collection: One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity, by Debbie Macomber (241.4 Macomb); 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life, by Cami Walker (155.232 Wal); and The Power of Half: One Family’s Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back, Kevin Salwen (174 Sal).

Many donors ask that their gifts be used for a specific area of service, the most popular being children’s services. The Children’s Room, collection, and services have benefitted from donations made by the local Kiwanis Club, individual donors, memorial donations, and businesses such as Valero and Shannon Family Farms.

Distributions from funds established at the Montgomery County Community Foundation (MCCF), including the John Berry Memorial Fund, Helen Harvey Fund, Orville and Mildred Probst James Fund, and Marian J. Morrison Fund, have also supported the excellent work of the Youth Services Department. Donations and community fund distributions that support children’s services have been used to purchase award-winning books, new tables in the Children’s Program Room, and program supplies.
Children’s books in the library’s collection that focus on the joys of giving include The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving, by Jan Berenstain (j E Ber); The Giving Bear, by Isabel Gaines (j BEG Gai); Giving, by Shirley Hughes (j E Hug); and The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein (j E Sil).

Other popular areas in which to give are services and materials for people who are visually disabled, the local history collection, and the Carnegie Museum. The Marian J. Morrison Fund and the Luella Brake Trust have purchased large print books and audiobooks for our collections. Local history items have been purchased or microfilmed for preservation using funds from the Georgia Watkins Fund.

The Friends of the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County collects membership fees and hosts a gift shop in the museum. The proceeds of these activities not only pay the Friends’ expenses but a large portion is donated to cover traveling exhibits and supplies for the museum’s programs and permanent exhibits.

Community giving can be a powerful force, sometimes in the form of a grant, such as the grant MCCF awarded last year to the Carnegie Museum to more effectively store the museum’s collections and supplies. An Indiana Humanities grant in 2022 allowed the museum and library to offer a year of nature-inspired programming related to the Aimee Nezhukumatathil book, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (590 Nez).

Titles in CDPL’s book collection on community giving include Gifts of Time and Money: The Role of Charity in America’s Communities (302.14 Gif); Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It), by Robert D. Lupton (205.677 Lup); and A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity, by Nicholas Kristof (361 KRI).

While many works of fiction revolving around a charity involve the solving of a mystery, The Giving Quilt, by Jennifer Chiaverini (FIC CHI v. 20; also CDBK FIC Chi v. 20) focuses on a group of quilters making quilts for Project Linus–a real-life organization dedicated to providing homemade blankets and afghans to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need of comfort. If this mission speaks to your heart, Knits from the Heart: Quick Projects for Generous Giving, by Kristin Spurkland (746.432 Spu) can get you started.

Our gratitude abounds when we consider the generous folks who give their time and hard-earned funds to help the library and museum be even better than ever. Two final titles to share: Radical Kindness: The Life-changing Power of Giving and Receiving, by Angela C. Santomero (177.7 SAN) and The Little Book of Gratitude: Create a Life of Happiness and Wellbeing by Giving Thanks, by Robert A. Emmons (158.1 Emm).

For assistance to locate these titles or other titles on this topic, please contact the Reference Department at ref@cdpl.lib.in.us or 765-362-2242, ext. 117.