Bookmobile News

We are very proud to announce renewal and expansion of major operational funding from The Ernest L. and Ruth W. Finley Foundation! This support has been a tremendous boon over the past year, allowing us to focus our time and resources on improving the consistency and quality of our service delivery. We are delighted to be in ongoing partnership with a foundation with such a tremendous legacy, a foundation that has done so much to improve the quality of life of Sonoma County residents.  The funding of the Free Bookmobile speaks boldly of their commitment to local literacy outreach.

Ernest & Ruth Finley supported all worthwhile community projects during their 76 years of newspaper and radio ownership, and were in the vanguard of any effort to advance or assist the City of Santa Rosa, County of Sonoma, and North Bay region, including the founding of the Sonoma County Fair, and representation of the northern counties in making the Golden Gate Bridge a reality.  The Ernest L. and Ruth W. Finley Foundation continues perpetually their interest in the well being of the community.

We are delighted to have a new partner in the Kiwanis Club of Santa Rosa! Their foundation received 300 books from the Reading Is Fundamental program and donated all of them to the Free Bookmobile. It’s a terrific selection of early readers and other children’s titles that will be immediately useful in our summer travels. We hope this is the start of a beautiful relationship as we have already begun discussions on future collaboration.

The non-profit Santa Rosa Kiwanis Foundation collects and disperses funds for the benefit of the community. These charitable activities follow the guidelines of the Kiwanis Clubs in categories that primarily focus on assisting and developing our youth. You can learn more about them, and how to participate, on their website: http://santarosakiwanis.org/.

The dynamic and philanthropic women of Impact100 Sonoma have awarded the Free Bookmobile a grant to purchase a carport-style vehicle shelter! This will protect the bookmobile from both sun and rain, helping ensure it will be around for many more years of service to the good citizens of Sonoma County. Impact100 is a wonderful grass-roots giving organization — “Women giving as one” — in which everyone who participates gets an equal vote on how hundreds of thousands of dollars are distributed each year. You can read more about Impact100 and the other 2013 award winners here: http://sonoma.towns.pressdemocrat.com/2013/07/news/impact100-sonoma-awards-228000-in-grants/

Free Bookmobile Director Glen Weaver in good company with the rest of the Impact100 Sonoma 2013 Community Grant Award Winners, plus Community Grants Chair Lorraine Ashton and outgoing president B.J. Bischoff at right