There was a lot to celebrate and enjoy in 2022, and the Strathmore Municipal Library especially had a lot to look fondly back on. Assistant Director of Library Services Carmen Erison explained one of the library's big highlights was offering free memberships and removing fines. This helped bring in at least 1200 new memberships.

Getting more people in the doors helped the community enjoy some of the big events as well.  Erison was especially happy with the success of some new events like the cat cafe.

"It was a great partnership with the Happy Cat Sanctuary. We were able to adopt out some cats and raise some money for the Happy Cat Sanctuary and we can't wait to be bringing it back on January 21," she said.

On the topic of partnerships, that was another huge highlight of 2022 for the library. Erison explained a lot of what they've been able to accomplish this year was because of partnerships, which included but is not limited to:

  • Strathmore FCSS: inclusive activity kits, including dementia kits 
  • Prospect Human Services: painting the new "welcome" mural at the front of the library through their Skills for Success program.
  • Strathmore Wheatland Wellness Resource Project: wellness desk available for 6 hours a week to find information about projects, resources, and more.
  • Wheatland Youth Network: Halloween Spooktacular, which more than 100 people enjoyed

In general, Erison believes 2022 was the year where people were ready to start going out more post-pandemic, which made a lot of community focused events shine.

"For Mother Goose in the park, we saw over 110 people come out to just one of the days. So we saw people ready to come out and enjoy quality free programming from the library and other valuable organizations," Erison noted that the did have a great turnout to each Mother Goose in the park event that was held weekly along with the one larger day that saw over 110 people. 

Outside of larger scale things like partnerships and events, Erison also highlighted the amazing volunteers as a personal highlight.

"We have had so many people want to volunteer with the library this year and I think that is a testament to the services that we provide in the community. People want to be part of the success, we saw over 1200 hours volunteered in the library by our volunteers."

These were just some of the many highlights of 2022 for the library, and Erison is looking forward to bringing even more to the community in 2023!

Before that, the library staff will be taking a well deserved break when the library closes from December 23 - January 3. Online services will still be accessible though.

Read More on facility holiday hours here

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