Powell River Public Library has received its first major donation toward its new facility at Crossroads Village, set to open this summer.
Residents Ron and Susan Woznow, along with Ron’s sisters Beverly Woznow of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and Susan Burnett of Albuquerque, New Mexico, donated $20,000 to support the new library.
Ron, currently serving on the library’s board of trustees, and his family made the donation in tribute to their late mother, Anne, who was an educator with a lifelong commitment to literacy.
“She considered it essential to encourage young children to love reading as early as possible,” said Ron in a media release.
The donated funds are earmarked for the children’s area in the new library, to be named the Anne Woznow Children’s Reading Room, according to interim chief librarian Terry Noreault.
Ron, who also sits on the board of First Credit Union, was previously an executive at Fletcher Challenge Canada, Arthritis Society, Canadian Genetic Diseases Network and Coopers & Lybrand, the accounting firm now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, before his retirement.
During last November’s municipal election, over 75 per cent of Powell River residents voted in support of the city borrowing $3.5 million to relocate the library.
The library launched a fundraising campaign in spring 2015 to generate $1.4 million needed to support City of Powell River’s contribution, for a total projected cost of $4.9 million.
Charitable donations to the library’s campaign can be made at buildafuturepr.ca.
