Vistors line up to check out the crafted bags for sale during the Friends of the Strum Library fair fundraiser on Saturday, Nov. 8.The crafting event held at the Strum Elementary School Commons on Nov. 8 displays a variety of handmade items for sale, including signs and holiday trinkets.

Crafting for the library

Friends of the Strum Public Library host show fundraiser
“It’s a lot nicer to purchase homemade gifts than store-bought gifts for Christmas. A lot of people I’ve heard are doing Christmas shopping today. We have something for everybody." - Dawn Hering, craft show organizer

 

by Doug Sands

Crafters and consumers alike got a taste of the fall spirit as they gathered at the Strum Primary School on Nov. 8 for a common goal; to support the Strum Public Library. 

Community members from Strum and beyond came to walk through the dozens of craft table displays set up around the central commons.

Dawn Hering, a key organizer of the event for the last seven years, explained that the Friends of the Strum Public Library officially put on the craft show. The “Friends” are a nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping the Strum Public Library open for the public to enjoy.

The craft show, which sees an impressive two-dozen crafting vendors, started out with a rather humble beginning. 

“We actually started off with about ten crafters,” Hering said of the beginnings of the annual fundraiser. 

Hering, a noted crafter herself, had always wanted to be a part of a craft show, but was intimidated by the large-scale craft shows in the area. 

“We came up with this idea for a fundraiser, so we thought we’d try it and see if any other crafters wanted to be in it,” she said. 

The craft show, which saw success in its first year, returned the following year and has been growing ever since. In 2014, the show hosted 24 vendors. 

“We got quite a few new ones this year, which is a great thing,” Hering added.

Due to the growth in recent years, the “Friends” have taken the show from its original location to the Strum Primary School. The district graciously opened its doors free of charge to help this community effort. With such hospitality, the “Friends” were able to host the show from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the sunny fall weekend.

The show offered a variety of crafts. 

“We have a lot of different crafters that do different things,” Hering said. “Most of them have been with us from the start. They’re from all over. Some are from Mondovi, some are from Elk Mound.”

Several of the crafters who usually participate in the event were out at other shows for the weekend, meaning the show has an even larger support network than it showed this year. “We normally have this craft show in December, but we moved it up, because it was getting pretty late in December, and the crafters have a better variety to sell for both holidays.”

The craft show was as much an event for finding new crafts as it was a social event. 

“We’ve had quite a few people here today,” Hering said. “It’s nice to have a little something for our community to get people to come to Strum today.”

The crafts offered at the event gave the community plenty to choose from. Most of the crafts for sale were completely hand-made, though a few vendors carried brands such as Pampered Chef. The craft show also hosted quilters and wreath-makers, paper crafters, and woodworkers, as well as homemade food and soap vendors. With such a variety, many community members took the opportunity to do a bit of Christmas shopping. 

“It’s a lot nicer to purchase homemade gifts than store-bought gifts for Christmas,” Hering said. “A lot of people I’ve heard are doing Christmas shopping today. We have something for everybody. It’s really nice.”

Though the craft show is a community event at its heart, its main goal is to raise funds for the Strum Public library. Any vendor at the event pays their way with a $25 entrance fee and every penny is donated to help the library. Crafters who participate in the show keep all profits from their sales while the dollar entrance fee charged to visitors goes to the public library as well.

Carolyn Boehne, an influential member of the “Friends” organization, explained more on the current goal of fundraisers like these. 

“Our main object right now is to pay as much money as we can towards the library’s mortgage,” Boehne said. “When we purchased the library building that we are in now, we went to the village board and explained to them that we would like to have the library there, but we didn’t have the money.” 

The library, though well supported by the community, needed extra financial backing from the town itself. Each year, the library pays as much of the mortgage as it can. 

“We have nine years left to pay, and then the building and the remodeling will all be paid,” Boehne said.

The “Friends” themselves are the main fundraising force behind the library, and they host a multitude of events in the community. 

“This is one of the projects we have,” Boehne said of the craft show. “We have spaghetti dinners, we have our basket raffles, we have a farmer’s market when people have extra produce in the summer, and we have soup suppers. [We do] anything that we can to raise a few dollars and make people aware.”

Events like the craft show are extremely beneficial for the “Friends” and their efforts. 

“We get people into Strum, and that’s what we try to do,” Boehne said. “Public relations are so important. We can make anywhere from $1,000 to $1,200 for our event today.”

One of the biggest fundraising events the ‘Friends’ put on is the annual membership drive. Soon, this organization will be contacting community members, asking them to become members of the ‘Friends of the Strum Public Library’. 

“It’s $10 for a single person, $25 for a family,” Boehne said. “You can be a lifetime member for $500. Our main thing is to make people aware that we do have a library in Strum to get them in there to use it.”

The library currently has upward of $150,000 left to pay off the mortgage. Though they still have nine years left to pay, the “Friends” are having a difficult time finishing up the payments.

“It’s getting harder,” Boehne said of their fundraising efforts. “When we first started it, it was quite easy. People knew it was new. Now it’s getting harder every year to make payments. We’ve been averaging only $10,000-15,000 a year, and our mortgage payment is $20,000.”

The Strum Public library honors each of its large-scale donors with plaques on the library walls. 

“One year when we first started, one family donated $30,000,” Boehne said. “It was close to $100,000 in the first part of the year. There were businesses and people who were donating $5,000.”

No matter if community members are active donors, Boehne encourages them to support the organization’s efforts. 

“We want them to keep in mind that we are an organization that is raising money for our library,” she said. “We want to keep it open. There are a lot of libraries that are to the point where they don’t even know if they’re going to be open.” 

To the community, Boehne wanted to stress everyone remember it is work to keep the library open for everyone in the area. As Boehne put it, “If we don’t pay the mortgage off, we won’t have a building or a library.”

For the “Friends,” the craft fair is an annual event that does the community a great service. It gives the community a chance to gather and share crafting ideas, and it also gives them a place to check out library materials. 

“Every little bit goes a long way,” Hering said. “Every little event that we have helps go to pay that mortgage off.”

Boehne hopes the community understands the importance of events like the craft show in our area. “It’s very important to have a public library in Strum. We have a very beautiful library; people need to come and use it. They have everything there; it’s not just books. It’s a little bit of everything.”

Though the craft fair itself is finished, the mission of the Friends of the Strum Public Library is not. Both Boehne and Hering encouraged the community to come out again next year to attend the annual craft event.

“We’ll be here again next year in November,” Hering said. “We’re pretty proud of our little craft show. ”

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