2024 Recipient $2,153.66: Community Grant

Submitted by: Arlene Reynolds, Director

The Carthage-Henry Henley and Knightstown Public Libraries collaborated to provide a summer filled with families reading together for fun and prizes.

As the summer progressed, we promoted the Carthage-Henry Henley Public Library’s mission to use a variety of resources for lifelong learning and enjoyment. Using the town’s new stage, the library sponsored musicians to perform for the community. We used these opportunities to provide the rich Carthage history beginning with the purpose the town’s founding members had when they built the library while inviting Ripley Township residents to sign up for free library cards while they attended the sponsored performances.

Young, old, and those who seldom get a chance to participate in the community had a great time attending the concerts. We received comments like, “Great concert! Thank you.”  It was great to see our teenagers interacting in positive ways with the audience and performers, something not witnessed often.

Bringing entertainment to the community helped us sign up many patrons for library cards and brought more people into the library, too. Just the first event brought us 12 new card holders! The community enjoyed the programing brought to the Carthage stage thanks to the grant provided by the Rush County Community Foundation.

There were people who weren’t aware that the HHPL was an operational public library! They didn’t know we not only dealt with the usual checking out of materials but also made copies and sent faxes. Many thought they had to pay for their cards and were pleased to find out that Ripley Township residents could have a free Evergreen card that could be used in Carthage and over 127 other Evergreen libraries such as Knightstown, Rushville, New Castle, Morristown, and Shelbyville.  When community members heard about the offerings of the library they stopped in and signed up for cards. The RCCF grant had helped us get the word out about our wonderful Quaker built library, a real Rush County gem! So many people thought the library was a Carnegie library and had no idea the area was settled by Quakers who raised the money to build their library rather than having Carnegie dictate how the library would be managed.

Thank you RCCF for being there to help us accomplish our goals!