The Random House of Canada "Friend of the Year" Award will be given to a Friends of the Library group for outstanding community and volunteer involvement. All Friends’ groups who are members in good standing of FOCAL are eligible to enter.

The judging will be conducted by FOCAL and the first annual award will be presented to the chosen applicant during the Canadian Library Association Conference in June of each year. One prize will be awarded to the chosen Friend's group in the amount of $500 for the purchase of books for the library it supports.

CO-WINNER - Friends of the Atikokan Public Library

For sheer originality and community involvement, these Friends are really something. They have fundraising activities year-round and are very vocal advocates to City Council.

An example of activities - October - Thanksgiving Basket Raffle; November - Handknitted wool sweaters raffle; December - Christmas basket raffle; February - Valentines Day raffle; May - Annual Mammoth Book Sale [2 days long]; June - 100th birthday basket raffle; July - visit the Friends' table during the Canada Day festivities on Legion Point; August - summer fun basket raffle and Friends' family picnic. Raffle tickets are constantly on hand for users to purchase at the library and are enormously popular.

They have worked on the Digital project on the history of Atikokan and are raising funds to make the library barrier-free so citizens can access information. They marched for the library [over 100 Friends] to show their support for the library's budget. They volunteer with the shut-in services too.

To quote the CEO/Librarian Doris B. Brown, who nominated the Friends, "I cannot imagine a library functioning well without "Friends". They have more impact on the Municipal Government than any other group. The Municipal Council was shocked when 125 people marched in the Council Chamber, during their regular meeting, to emphasize the importance of the library in the community. It was truly an amazing accomplishment."

CO-WINNER - Friends of the Ottawa Public Library

Ottawa's application discussed the Friends' project called "Friends 2001". It highlighted work with the home reader service [buying their vans for them], enhancements to the library's overall collection, start-up funds for projects in literacy and health information, and support of the Ottawa Room, an archival resource.

In 1999, FOPLA celebrated its book store's 15th anniversary and recognized past and present volunteers. The bookstore raised over $61,000 last year. Freinds are also involved with fundraising and advocacy, going to city council meetings as needed.
 
 

Honourable Mention - Friends of the Huntsville Public Library

They wrote about the campaign at the library called "Help Your Shelf", to raise funds to increase the library's collection of books, CDs and videos.  All their money goes toward that project at present. They are committed to raising $50,000 over 3 years and have already paid $20,000 since April 1999.

Their fundraising is done by selling Nevada tickets and by selling used books.  They also have held special sales and a silent auction to make more money. They are involved in special programmes at the library, held in the Friends' Multipurpose room. These have included a speaker on the Titanic, a songwriter who gave a workshop, a puppet show for children, and a speaker on endangered species.

There is lots of variety in their programming and lots of appeal right across the community.

Honourable Mention - Friends of the Saskatoon Public Library

Saslatoon's proposal was based on FORKFEST, which is a fundraiser held in April. They recruit 8-10 restaurants who donate their time and food, and then the Friends sell tickets for $30 each for the patrons to go from booth to booth, sampling the restaurant's food. It's a popular event and they have raised in excess of $100,000 for the library since they started doing this event six years ago.