Bookmobile News

You read the subject line correctly – we finally have a promotional film to share with you!  The product of quite a labor of love, this brief video introduces folks to our work in a way we hope transcends words. Just click here to view it on our new YouTube channel, and then please share it with friends and family.  Huge thanks to Albert Casselhoff at Casselhoff Media for his excellent videography efforts, and to Dr. Eric Van Leuven for his beautiful music.  Casselhoff Media shot three full days of bookmobile service event footage, including many in-depth interviews with our partners and volunteers, so we have plans to produce a longer, more documentary-style video as well.  Meanwhile, let us know what you think of this one!

We are delighted to add an eighth book donation site in support of our program!  Many of our Healdsburg and Geyserville supporters have requested a location close to home and thanks to the outreach and generosity of owner Kim Endries, ReHealdsburg Consignments is now an official Free Bookmobile donation partner.  ReHealdsburg’s primary business is consignment sales of furniture and other home/garden items.  They accept high quality articles throughout the year and sell them on three consecutive days every six weeks.  ReHealdsburg also assists other local charities by helping them raise money through their sales.  If you live in the area, we hope you’ll take few minutes to gather the best of your book collection that’s no longer in use, and bring them over to ReHealdsburg soon!  Please note the hours listed below, though their friendly staff is often there anyway so just call ahead and set up a convenient appointment.

ReHealdsburg Consignments

403 Allan Court, Healdsburg (433-3231)

 TUES, THURS  11 Am – 3 Pm

SAT  11 Am – 2 Pm and by appt. (call ahead)

Near downtown, take North Street west from Healdsburg Avenue. Past Grove Street take an immediate right into Allan Court, which doubles as a large parking lot for the warehouse-style businesses. Look for the ReHealdsburg sign.

Come support the Free Bookmobile by learning about how to support your spine! Our good friend Sharon Bard, a local yoga instructor with over 40 years of experience, will be offering a gentle class at Healdsburg Yoga Studio on May 16 from 6 - 8 Pm. We’d love to see you there, and donations for our program will be gratefully accepted! Sign up info is on the flyer below, here’s part of the description:

“We will do easy stretches, twists and bends to encourage fluid, versatile movements of the vertebral column. Discover ways to increase mobility, balance and strength while reducing stiffness and pain. Suitable for all levels.”

Thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience, Sharon!

We’ve been able to do so much more in Petaluma and surrounding areas this past year thanks primarily to generous support from the Petaluma Community Foundation (PCF), a terrific group stewarding resources that help local non-profits work together to make a bigger impact in the region than would otherwise be possible. This positions them to serve a unique role in strengthening community:

• They provide consulting services (at no charge) to enhance nonprofit performance on a range of topics, including board development and training, executive coaching, and succession planning.
• They regularly keep abreast of urgent local needs and encourage collaboration for maximum community impact.
• They fund solutions that change lives and enrich quality of life across our community.

Click here or call 707.773.3863 or e-mail Executive Director, Marilyn Segal at msegal@petalumacf.org to learn more!

Tremendous news! A while back we learned that our fiscal agent, the Literary Arts Guild, is closing their Book Festival and winding down operations. This left us with the option of launching our own independent non-profit, or finding a new non-profit partner with which to strengthen our operation. Fortunately, the Sonoma County Public Library Foundation (SCPLF) found us!

Their mission is to “strengthen the ability of the Sonoma County Library to serve our community by raising funds to support the library, and to promote the use of library resources, enthusiasm for reading, and increased literacy for all Sonoma County residents.” They are big bookmobile fans, having followed our progress for years now, and we really got to know each other by teaming up on last year’s Cinema & Chocolate fundraiser. The bottom line is that they love what we do and want to fundamentally support the literacy outreach at the core of our mission.

Outgoing president Jenni Klose, Treasurer Dan Jenkins and Free Bookmobile Director Glen Weaver looked at all our shared interests and complementary strengths and discovered this is natural and wonderful fit for both organizations. Big thanks to Dan for doing most of the leg and paperwork getting the details together, and we are all set to become a SCPLF program by the end of March. Glen will continue to perform Director/Driver duties and one of the best parts of the new arrangement concerns continuity. Should Glen ever leave the bookmobile, the SCPLF will have everything they need to install new staff and keep everything rolling.

For our part, we look forward to using our mobile platform to promote broader use of Sonoma County’s terrific library facilities, in addition to the other work sponsored by the SCPLF, such as their Summer Reading Program for children in need. We also hope to help with their current investigation of how to better serve our local Latino communities.

We will still need your dedicated support! Just as before, we’ll need to raise funds to cover our operational costs, and we’ll need your books to keep our shelves fresh and vital. So stay on board with the Free Bookmobile as we accelerate into a very bright future!

Who wants to sample prize-winning truffles, handmade chocolates, moist brownies, and other offerings from Sonoma County chocolatiers? And then watch a hilarious movie afterward? You do, of course! Please mark your calendar for this lovely fundraiser at the Sebastopol Rialto Cinemas to benefit the Sonoma County Public Library Foundation. This non-profit works hard to support all 13 of Sonoma County’s public libraries with a variety of programs and resources. Plus the Free Bookmobile will be there, so you know it’s gonna be awesome.

Click here for tickets, just $35 for all-you-can-sample magnificence from the most talented chocolate & brownie wizards in the county…and The Princess Bride on the big screen!

Have a gander at our beautiful new vehicle shelter! Thanks again to Impact100 Sonoma, the Free Bookmobile is now protected from sun and rain. This should keep the roof and body in good shape for future generations to come, which is awesome because the engine (a Cummins turbo-diesel) and transmission (Allison) are also of high quality, with low mileage relative to the vehicle’s age. ¡Viva el bibliobús!

We’re so grateful! Huge thanks to Basic Necessities of Livermore for their recent generous donations of brand new children’s books to the Free Bookmobile. Over the past few months they’ve passed forward 84 boxes of terrific titles that we’ve been putting to the best use possible: providing low-income children and their families with fun, educational literacy materials. We were also very pleased to get to know their directors and hear about how they are helping link all kinds of resources to people in need in the East Bay and beyond. Bravo! We hope to continue this new relationship throughout 2014.

A huge thank you to our new supporters, Abbey Carpet of Petaluma! On short notice, Abbey was able to replace our aging industrial weave with beautiful specialized carpet that should provide the most comfortable and hygienic browsing experience ever for our many thousands of young patrons. The job was not an easy one, as the bookmobile interior is a custom surface that presented several unique challenges to the Abbey team. Not only did they come through on time but also gave us a substantial discount as a way of investing in our literacy outreach work.

Thank you also to the City of Santa Rosa Community Advisory Board, which provided major funding for this improvement. Come see us soon on our route to check out our fabulous new floor!

Thank you, Healdsburg Area Fund of Community Foundation Sonoma County! In recognition of the impact we are having with our high quality work throughout the greater Healdsburg area, the Community Foundation HA Board has renewed our grant funding in full for 2014. This marks the third year of our collaboration with the HA Fund Board, and is of course great news for all the children, families and seniors we are reaching each month in that region. From the farmworkers at Harvest Grove apartments to the four-year-olds at the Healdsburg Child Development Center, from the seniors at Fitch Mountain Terrace to the after-school kids at Geyserville Boys & Girls Club, we’re thrilled to continue serving them all next year!