LIBRARY WORKERS VOLUNTEER AT WXXI

City of Rochester library workers and WXXI volunteers
left to right:

Margaret Chatterton (Central) and Renee Kendrot (Central)

Rochester, N.Y.-- On Tuesday evening, December 8th, workers from CSEA Local 828 City of Rochester Library Workers Unit 7420 volunteered to operate the phone banks at WXXI studios for their annual membership drive.  Margaret Chatterton and Renee Kendot, both who work at the Central Library, say that volunteering for WXXI is not hard work.  Chatterton says talking to the community is "alot of fun."  Kendrot takes it one step further by saying, "I think it's very important to give back to WXXI because their programming has enriched all our lives, and I want to thank them for that." 

CSEA, the Rochester Public Library and WXXI have developed a strong collaborative relationship over several decades, dating back to the days of Monroe County Library System and Rochester Public Library Director Harold Hacker.  Mr. Hacker was a co-founder of WXXI. He made his mark on our community by helping residents of Monroe County persue a life of knowledge, inquiry and reading.  In his honor, the library workers donate volunteer hours every year on his behalf.  Mr. Hacker passed away in October of 2006.

When Hacker took over the Rochester Public Libraries and Monroe County Library System, boundaries between the library systems made it difficult for patrons to take advantage of all the resources in the region. 

It was no small task to get more than a dozen library boards to come together and devise a system that allows patrons to access collections of all public libraries in Monroe County, but Mr. Hacker persisted.

Today, residents of towns with smaller libraries can easily take advantage of the more than one million books, videos, cassettes and other materials found, for example, at the Central Library downtown. Smaller libraries with rare materials can share with people across the county who are interested in them.

Hacker didn't stop with libraries. He was a public broadcasting visionary who fought to secure a local channel for public broadcasting, even before the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio had been created by the federal government. The result was Channel 21, which was launched in 1966. Since then, WXXI has grown to five television channels and four radio stations.

In this spirit of cooperation, CSEA is proud to carry on the traditions of community service and volunteerism in the name of our late Director Mr. Harold Hacker.  This community should see much more of Harold's kind of commitment to educating the public. Additionally, local community, political and labor leaders should remember his spirit of cooperation. By working together, we can create a better community.