I live in a small town in New Jersey called Haworth (pronounced Haaworth). Like just over 3,000 people small. 1,100 households small. Most people have never heard of it, even people who grew up in NJ. I love my little town. Even more so because they recently raised almost $300,000 for a major library expansion that was facing a large funding deficit. Of course, I did my share. I donated money to buy a brick that will decorate a patio outside the entrance. And I offered to give a literary consultation to an aspiring author for a library fundraiser. But I was blown away when I saw this article about the fundraising efforts in a local paper, northjersey.com.

The time and energy these women put forth to creatively raise money for the library is nothing short of astounding. They started sending letters far and wide to anyone that had even a remote connection to Haworth.

They came up with a plan to contact the town of Haworth in England, home of the Brontë sisters, and the inspiration for our town’s name, who responded positively by buying a brick.

They got Anne Tyler and Ann Patchett, one of my favorite authors, to donate $700 between them.

Brooke Shields was raised in Haworth and bought a brick.

The SF Giants donated $500 because one of their early team members lived in Haworth.

Of course not all of their efforts were successful, but in the end they raised enough money for the expansion to go through. It was recently finished and looks amazing.

All I have to say is next time I have an author of mine in town, I am going to encourage them to come to the library for an event and get these ladies on board to sell books! If you have any great small town library stories to share, like my colleague, Eric, did last week on our blog, we’d love to hear them. This story makes me smile every time I think of it.