Belchertown, Mass. Nathaniel J. Mouse,
mascot of the Clapp Memorial Library’s capital campaign, got another
workout this week when library supporters gathered to urge him up the
campaign “clock” on the library lawn. The brief ceremony took place
on Thursday, October 29 at 2:30 p.m. at 19 South Main Street in
Belchertown.
In recent weeks, a surge in
new commitments to the library’s
expansion has propelled the private fundraising portion of the Clapp
campaign to $837,000—just beyond the half-way mark. The campaign
hopes to raise $1.6 million from foundations, corporations and private
individuals. In the last week, the group raised $61,000 toward that
goal.
“That’s comparable to any week we had in
the earlier days of the campaign,” said Loy Harris, who chairs the
effort. Although the project has been over ten years in the making,
fundraising began in earnest in 2008.
Harris credited three things for the group’s recent
successes: a $50,000 challenge pledge by an anonymous donor and the
generous response of a number of donors to that challenge; the efforts
of a team of local volunteers who have been actively soliciting gifts
and pledges from neighbors and community institutions, and a third
pledge, in the amount of $25,000, by the 300-member non-profit group,
the Friends of Clapp Memorial Library.
Friends president Jeanette Tibbetts and
several of her members attended the October 29 event. “The challenge
grant provided a wonderful opportunity for us to make our additional
pledge now instead of waiting until later,” she said.
Clapp
Memorial Library