Building a Library

Building a Community

Throughout this series, I have had the privilege of meeting the craftsmen whose hands are building the Friend Memorial Public Library. On Friday evening, August 7th, standing among hundreds of friends and neighbors at Brooklin Boat Yard, I realized there is another group of builders whose story also deserves to be told. They are all of us.

Nearly 400 people gathered that summer evening to celebrate Brooklin, our maritime heritage, and the place we share. Some have lived here their entire lives. Others spend only part of the year here, and many traveled from farther away. Looking across that crowd, it was impossible not to recognize how deeply people care about this community and its future. The evening centered on the showing of two short films, CIRRUS: A Wooden Boat Story and steward·ship: a love letter to the maine coast. But as wonderful as the films were, something else was happening all around us. People were gathering.

Old friends were reconnecting. New friendships were being made. Volunteers were greeting guests, serving food and drinks, directing cars, running shuttles, helping with the auction, and doing the countless little things required to welcome hundreds of people. Local businesses contributed food, services, equipment, and financial support. Others simply came because they wanted to be part of the evening and support the library. In my welcome that evening, I spoke about the idea of a red thread—an invisible thread that connects people whose lives cross and become intertwined. Looking across the boatyard that night, it was easy to see those threads everywhere. Some stretched back generations in Brooklin; others were newly formed. They connected neighbors, craftsmen, sailors, volunteers, donors, families, and friends from near and far—all drawn together by a shared affection for this remarkable community. For one summer evening, those threads seemed to come together at Brooklin Boat Yard.

Standing there and looking across the crowd, it was hard not to feel that we were witnessing exactly what a public library is meant to do. A library is certainly a place for books. It is a place for children to discover the joy of reading, for researchers to explore our maritime history, and for all of us to continue learning throughout our lives. But a library is also a place that brings people together. That evening at the boatyard, we didn't have to wait for the new library to be finished to see that happening.

August 7th

From left to right, Durier Ryan, Ken Murphy, Luc Milam, and Robert Baird. Introducing the films and the evening.

Perhaps most encouraging were the children moving through the crowd. Someday this will be their library. Long after this campaign is finished and the construction crews have gone home, they will inherit what this community chose to build together. The support surrounding this project extends far beyond a single evening. Every event we have held during this campaign has depended upon volunteers giving their time, businesses donating goods and services, neighbors opening their doors, and people contributing whatever they could. Much of what has made this campaign possible will never appear on a financial statement—the countless volunteer hours, donated food and equipment, borrowed tables and chairs, rides, cleanup crews, and hundreds of small acts of generosity offered simply because someone wanted to help.

Those contributions have helped us enormously, but they have also accomplished something much harder to measure. They have brought us closer together. Perhaps that is another way a library gets built. There are the architects who imagine it, the craftsmen who pour the foundations and raise the walls, and the donors who provide the resources to make it possible. But there is also a community that gathers around an idea and says, this matters to us. August 7 was a wonderful reminder of just how large that community has become. As the walls continue to rise on Bay Road, we are watching a beautiful building take shape—a place where children will discover their first favorite book, neighbors will gather, researchers will explore our maritime heritage, and generations we will never meet will continue to learn and grow. We are building a library together. And somewhere along the way, the library is helping to build our community.

-Robert Baird, Capital Campaign Chair