The Friends of the Hamilton Branch LibraryIn the summer of 2013, a group of community members started working, in conjunction with the Hamilton Branch staff, to form a "Friends" group specifically for the Hamilton Branch. That fall, four original incorporators of the Hamilton Friends group applied for a state charter as a non-profit corporation. Shortly thereafter, the group obtained its federal tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) charity, becoming the Hamilton Branch's affiliate of the Pratt Central Library's 40- year-old "Friends" organization.
The Hamilton Branch "Friends" began operations with an initial Board Meeting in May of 2014. Since then, we have purchased equipment or materials for programs, advocated for the Branch within the Pratt system, and began gardening, first in the courtyard and then in the surrounding sidewalk beds. In December of 2019, we held our first major program, a panel discussion of local author Lawrence Lanahan's book, The Lines Between Us, that focused on efforts to build an integrated Northeast Baltimore. Since the pandemic halted in-person events, we have held two outdoor used book sales to generate funds to support the branch and kept in close touch with the staff to increase awareness of its virtual programming. We seek to build a larger membership base and increase our capacity to assist the branch as it expands its services in this challenging time. Current Board Members: Malissa Ruffner, Beverly Hills Derek Simmonsen, Lauraville Deborah Mason, Mayfield "In a speech on the American Great Plains some years ago, I praised librarians as gate keepers to knowledge. A native American Indian chief came up to me afterward and quietly explained that, long before European settlers brought books to North America, the elder of a tribe would preserve the knowledge of his people in his head the way librarians would later do in their collections. 'But we didn't call him a gate keeper,' he gently explained, 'we called him the dream keeper' " The Friends of the Hamilton Branch Library is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
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