LIBRARY EMPLOYEES DONATE HOLIDAY GIFT BAGS TO IN-HOME AREA PATRONS

RPL Acquisitions Clerk Mary Haidvogel accepts Christmas gift donations for home-bound library patrons from CSEA City of Rochester Library Workers Unit President Ove Overmyer. photo: Tony Palermo 

Rochester, N.Y.-- Once again, Rochester Public Library employees (CSEA and AFSCME) are donating in-home holiday gift bags to RPL Extension/Outreach Department patrons-- most of them who are unable to visit our public libraries for a variety different reasons.

RPL Library Assistant Liz Barry, who oversees the project, tells the Voice Reporter that she always looks forward to this time of the year. "Our patrons are thrilled to get these gift bags. We stuff them with homemade crafts, household goods, magnifying lamps, and book holders for hands-free reading, snacks, books, toiletry items and other neat stuff. My fellow co-workers are a very generous bunch of people.”

This year, according to Ms. Barry, nearly 40 home-bound patrons will start receiving their gift bags by the end of this week.

The Extension/Outreach Department of the Monroe County Library System and the Rochester Public Library provides library services to include in-home delivery for members of the community who are unable to visit a library due to age or transportation limitations, or because of a temporary or permanent physical disability.

The Extension/Outreach Department also loans materials to nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the Rochester, N.Y. area as well as lending reading materials and GED support at the Monroe Correctional Facility and Rochester Correctional Facility. Library staff also provides reference service via mail to inmates.

“This library department does magic, I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” says CSEA Unit President Ove Overmyer. “I have made visits to in-home patrons with my co-workers Larry Taylor and Ms. Barry, and I can tell you first hand our patrons embrace them like family. You should see how their faces light up when they come knocking. You would think they won a million bucks.”