It’s National Volunteer Week! Service Takes Many Forms here at the Library, and one of the ways we recognize it is with our Friends of QPL Shining Star Award.

The Shining Star Award is given to individual Friends members that demonstrate exceptional leadership qualities that inspire and motivate others to action; and Friends groups that exemplify a collaborative spirit and strive to work together to provide ideas, resources, and opportunities that uplift their community.

We are proud to name the staff of Kew Gardens Hills Library as the recipients of the 2023 Shining Star Staff Award, for their work supporting the Kew Gardens Hills Friends group!

Here are some comments from Kew Gardens Hills Library's Assistant Manager, Asher MacInnis-Call.

One of the biggest impacts the Friends of KGH made in our branch this year was purchasing a color printer for us, for flyers and programming outreach. We’ve been able to put together a notice board in the window of the library so that people walking by can see the programs we offer without coming into the branch. I’ve had several people tell me they came into the library just to attend a program we were advertising, when they were not regular users of the library.

The Friends have a unique connection to the community. They live here, they have friends and family here. The connections they bring for outreach are so important for growing our library users and getting the word out about the cool programs we offer. In addition to their assistance with outreach, the Friends bring in unique programs that are tailored to the neighborhood, in a way that only neighborhood residents could.

At Kew Gardens Hills, we are in the unique position of being one of the three QPL branches that are open on Sundays. We have a rotating crew of staff that works on Sundays, when the regular branch staff is out of the building. I want to take the time to give a shout out to our Sunday staff, who work with our Friends group when they present Sunday programming.

I would love to see our Friends chapter continue to push their fundraising efforts to gather support for the library. They’ve made some great progress in the last year, and they have some tremendous ideas for future fundraising events. I am so excited to see where these ideas lead.

For more information about joining an existing Friends group or starting your own chapter for your neighborhood library, visit https://volunteer.queenslibrary.org/qplfriends.

If you're interested in other ways of volunteering at Queens Public Library, you can visit https://volunteer.queenslibrary.org.