2023 Year in Review: Friends of Birch Bay Library

2023 was a whirlwind year for the Birch Bay Vogt Library project. We started the year off thinking our $2 million state appropriation would be lost because of our scope of work change to a smaller library express. But, with the help of state senator Sharon Shewmake, a small group of library friends braved a cold, snowy trip to Olympia to advocate for our project. After speaking with state senators Mark Schoesler and Mark Mullet, we were able to get our denial reversed. That moment set us on a course for success, making 2023 our best year ever.

Friends of Birch Bay Library (FOBBL) have been busy, clocking close to 2,430 volunteer hours this year. We attended many of the Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce events. We started Meet and Greet Wednesdays with our book sale available during Bookmobile hours. We donned our community partner hats, participating in the Birch Bay Easter Egg Hunt, Day at the Beach, National Night Out and Holiday Lights Obstacle Dash. We had a few new fundraisers of our own: Paint Night with Doug Parent, Love Your Library Fun Run and Whatcom County Library System’s Open Book. We made some wonderful connections, which helped us increase the amount of funds we were able to raise.

In November, the Friends were overjoyed to learn that Whatcom County Councilmember Kaylee Galloway, executive Satpal Sidhu and the county council included our request for $315,000 in the federal American Recovery Plan Act budget. With that amount, we can move forward with the Birch Bay Vogt Library Express.

We want to give a huge thank you to our project supporters. Friends of Birch Bay Library is focusing on continued fundraising to help further development of the library site and the historic Vogt house. Stay tuned for more project updates in 2024!