Sisters Library celebrates holiday

A packed holiday audience at St. Edward the Martyr Catholic Church heard Peg Bermel, Library Manager, tell the group that the library was busier than ever during 2001.

"We handled 55,000 items checked out this year -- up from 48,000 last year," said Bermel.

The event held Tuesday, December 4, was the 19th annual library Christmas dinner honoring the many dozens of library volunteers.

"These people play an important role in day-to-day library operations and keeping the library shelves restocked. At minimum wage, the library saved over $8,000 by utilizing volunteer workers," said Bermel.

Besides individually honoring the volunteers Bermel also introduced the Friends of the Library Board, the Sisters Library Advisory Council (SLAC), and her staff.

Neal Wineman, SLAC Chairperson, said he was most impressed with the computerization of the library.

"Visit the library any day and see the heavy use of computers the library now handles," he said.

Dwight Smith, Chairperson of the Friends, said he looked forward to future library expansion as being very important for the community. Bermel seconded this opinion and said, "It was gratifying to meet with the city council last month and experience an open and frank discussion about the library's future."

Mary Beth Pearl-Gent regarded consolidation of library activities as a very important step forward.

"We set up the new Deschutes Public Library System (DPLS), put a new library board in place and now have a smoother running operation," she said. "The next important step for Sisters is expansion of the present library and relations with the City of Sisters."

Pearl-Gent is the elected Sisters area representative on the DPLS Board.

After a sumptuous dinner, tales from Jim Anderson enthralled the group. Anderson, who is Vice-President of SLAC, brought along his tattered book containing the complete works of Robert Service.

Jim told the audience how he purchased his first airplane, a Piper J3, for 3-1/2 sacks of money. You'll have to catch him for the rest of the story. He finished with a reading of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" from his Service collection.

Tom Chace was the lucky winner in the quilt raffle. The RV folks who visited the area during last summer's big show in Redmond donated this quilt. The quilt money collected will go towards children's books in the local library.