Somethingforus.org

Thank you ladies, gentlemen and children who packed the community room of the Catholic church for our Tea & Tomes event this Saturday.  We served 65 persons at our sold out event.

We wish to acknowledge the hard work of one of our Library Museum volunteers, Kim Hughes, who brought the idea of the afternoon tea to reality.  Her friend Kate Forrest and her daughters Willa & Georgia prepared and served the selected variety of teas.  Kate and her daughters live in Soldotna.  A quick talk about Kate’s tea selection was made and the tea service began.  The tea was served at perfect drinking temperature.

The tables were set with real fine bone china tea cups and we wish to thank the ladies of our community for loaning us their treasures for the day.  They were wonderful to see on the tables and they made the tea drinking special.

Our hats are off to our local pastry chef Amy Mow for her presentation of her English tea desserts.  Words cannot express the visual and taste of these creations.  By far the best I have ever had.  We will just attach a picture of the trays and let you see the items.

The backside crew of faithful volunteers that move tables, carry boxes of china, that show up when needed, you know who you are, without these volunteers, these events would not happen.  Special thanks to Shellie Knopik, Amy Hankins, Jenifer Trautwein, Melissa Tougas, Rachel James, and again Kate,Willa & Georgia Forrest and Kim Hughes with grandson Andy.

A special thank you to Father Tero for use of the community room at Sacred Heart church.  Your community room was perfect for our event, with kitchen and all the items needed.

Gold Level sponsors for both of our events Tea & Tomes and our Dinner Cruise on Resurrection Bay (June 15) are: Inn at Tern Lake, Harmon Construction, Jaffa Construction, The Perfect Cup (Anchorage), Seward Fish and the Alaska Railroad.

Silent Auction donations for our Tea & Tomes were provided by; Kenai Fjords Tours, Alaska Railroad, Alaska SeaLife Center, Arctic Road Runner, Dot Bardarson, Cover to Cover, Moose’s Tooth, Thorn’s, Seward Fish, Anchorage Museum, AK Tan, Weezingreens, The Quilt Tree, Irvin Pottery, Skip & Marie Fletcher, Trinity Green House, Kim Hughes, Kate Forrest and Kathleen Barkley.

Many of our donated items will be showcased at our next silent auction event June 15, at our dinner cruise on Resurrection Bay.  Tickets will be limited for this coming event and we recommend early booking of tickets.  They can be reserved with credit card by calling 907.362.1225, ticket price will be $80 a person and includes a Prime Rib and Alaska salmon dinner.  Cruise will be from 6-10 p.m.

Table set and ready for guests

Filling the trays

Photo credit: Clark James Mischler for Seward Library Museum Building Committee

PHOTO RELEASE

For Immediate Release: October 4, 2011

Contact: Mary Tougas, 907.224.4378

BP Exploration (Alaska) donates $50,000 to new Seward Library Museum

Seward City Librarian Patty Linville shares building plans for the new Seward Library Museum with BP Exploration (Alaska) Vice President of External Affairs Phil Cochrane. BP contributed $50,000 toward the construction of the new Library Museum, slated for completion in 2012. The 16,300 sq. ft. facility combines state of the art library and museum services for Seward residents. “We are so pleased to accept BP’s donation,” said Linville. “Our building committee has worked four years to fulfill our financial plan for this project and BP’s contribution is a very welcome part of that picture.”

Photo credit: Clark James Mischler for Seward Library Museum Building Committee

When life-long Alaskan Barbara Gardiner Shea passed away this past January, she left the kind of legacies that let people know where the 63-year Seward resident’s heart was—like the new Seward Community Library Museum. Shea donated $71,000 to the idea that a strong library is important to Seward.

The new Library Museum building is due for completion in 2012. “Generosity and foresight like Barbara Shea’s is also a tribute to all the Seward volunteers that worked tirelessly during the last seven years to make our new Library Museum real,” said Library Museum Building Committee Chair Keith Campbell. “Barbara Shea’s gift is the kind that buys bedrock in our community,” he stated.

Shea was born in Ketchikan and moved to Seward with her family while she was a teenager. A graduate of Seward High School, she also met her future husband, Seward Shea, here. An active member of St. Peter’s Church, Shea worked Osbo’s Electric and Seward General Hospital, from which she retired. She was active in many civic and fraternal groups in Seward.

The new 16,300 sq. ft. Library Museum building project has been funded with $4.7 million in state grant money; a $3.7 million general obligation bond from the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank; $2 million from granting agencies like the Rasumuson Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and another $1 million from a local capital raising campaign that includes $300,000 in local leadership gifts. The new community facility includes the Museum and meeting spaces on the ground floor and the new library on the second floor. It will provide a variety of multi-uses to Seward residents year-round.

Mrs. Barbara Shea

June 8th marks our Ground breaking Ceremony for the Library Museum. We want to thank our participants and all the community that came to take part. Here are a few pictures from the ceremony. A great article by Heidi Zeimach on Seward City News, gives the details:

http://sewardcitynews.com/2011/06/09/library-museum-groundbreaking/

We wish to thank our corporate sponsor Petro Marine Services and Spenard Builders Supply.  SBS donated five shovels for our golden shovel moment.

Thank you to the boy scouts that came to present the colors, great work!  Thank you to the Ministerial Association for the invocation, Kendra Apodaca for singing the National Anthem, our speakers Dan Seavey, Edgar Blatchford, Mayor Willard Dunham, City Manager Phillip Oates, Bev Dunham, Jed Wilde.  Our Master of Ceremonies, David Kingsland, Library Museum volunteers Jen Cain who  worked the seed planting, Keith Campbell and Kerry Martin for getting the ground site ready, Mary Daniel and her crew of volunteers for the cookies and goodies inside the library basement for our reception.  Special thank you to all the community members that came to share this milestone with us, there were over a hundred of you, Thank you all.  More pictures are at the ‘stories and pictures’ place here on our website.

Kendra Apodaca sings the National Anthem

Ministerial Association doing the Invocation

Dan Seavey, historian musher, gives speech

Golden shovels at work

Seward singers doing the Seward Song

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: May 10, 2011

Contact: Mary Tougas, 907-362-1225

Library Museum Dinner Auction raises fun and money

Over 80 Seward residents recently spent a beautiful spring evening at the Inn at Tern Lake, raising over $16,200 for the Library Museum and raising their glasses in toasts to their wonderful hosts and chefs. Feasting on prime rib and halibut was punctuated by lively auction bidding on such a range of auction items that there was something for everyone to bid on.

Volunteer auctioneers, Dave and Dana Paperman kept the bidding lively and punctuated the process with drawings for many door prizes. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome of this event,” said Keith Campbell, chairman of the Seward Community Library Museum Building Committee. “The business community in Seward was so generous making their donations and otherwise supporting the auction, and the enthusiastic dinner crowd really told us that they were eager to support our new Library Museum.”

The Inn at Tern Lake donated their beautiful facility’s use for the evening, while Major Marine Tours underwrote the event. A free shuttle bus from downtown Seward, provided by Kenai Fjord Tours, was full for the round-trip out to Tern Lake.

Pictures can be seen on our pictures and stories page.

We want to thank the businesses and individuals

that donated to our dinner auction event!

“A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them.” (Mark Twain 1835-1910)

The new Seward Community Library Museum (SCLM) is the beneficiary of a $25,000 bequest from the estate of Susan Kaanta, a public-spirited, 28-year resident who passed away last summer.
City Librarian Patty Linville said Kaanta was an avid reader and library patron during her years in Seward, who took an active interest in the library. “She would frequently stop to discuss books and make recommendations while she was visiting the library, so we all knew her, and enjoyed Susan’s visits,” said Linville. Besides reading, Susan Kaanta was a life-long sailor and boating enthusiast who left many friends and adventures at the Seward boat harbor.
“We’re honored to add this gift to our Capital Campaign,” said Mary Tougas, vice chair of the SCLM Building Committee. “A bequest like this is such a wonderful memorial to a person like Susan Kaanta or to any other person who has lived as part of Seward’s history.”
Information on giving similar memorials gifts or donations can be obtained by calling Development Director Chellie Skoog (907.362.7974) or emailing her at chellies@somethingforus.org.

For Immediate Release: February 23, 2011                              

Contact: Keith Campbell, 907.224.5631

Seward Library Museum receives $1 million in grants

            Two prestigious grants, each for $500,000, recently gave the Seward Library Museum Building Committee’s fundraising efforts a million-dollar boost. The influential 56-year old Alaska based organization, The Rasumson Foundation, and the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), were the granting institutions.

            “We are very honored by the faith shown in our project by receiving these two significant grants from such important supporters,” said Mary Tougas, co-chair of the Seward Community Library Museum (SCLM) Building Committee.  “Our project especially sparkled among the NEH grants,” she added. “Our Library Museum was the only project funded in Alaska by NEH, and also received one of the bigger grants among the 371 national humanities projects selected in 2010 by NEH. It’s a real feather in Seward’s cap to be chosen in this national arena, and to be recognized, at the same time, by one of Alaska’s leading foundations.” The Rasmuson Foundation was founded as “…a catalyst to promote a better life for all Alaskans.”

            “Our fundraising is in high gear now,” said Tougas. “We expect to make some more announcements about additional gifts soon—when the paperwork is finalized,” she pledged. The financial picture for the $10.3 million new facility, in addition to the $1 million grants, includes a $4.7 million State grant received in 2010 and a recently approved $3.7 million general obligation (GO) bond by the City of Seward. A $500,000 local community giving campaign, “Be Part of the Heart,” is also underway. “We are excited we are right on schedule with the original funding scenario,” said Tougas. She said the SCLM Building group plans to continue submitting additional grant applications. Design work for the building is nearing 100 percent, so in addition to the funding being on schedule, the spring ground breaking for the multi-use facility is on also on schedule, noted Tougas. The new Seward Community Library Museum is slated for an August 2012 completion date.