PAY IT FORWARD

Let’s Pay It Forward again this April!

Last year, we invited patrons to “pay it forward” throughout April to help other Fennville library patrons clear fines off their account. Community members donated over $800, and we were able to reduce the fines of 43 patrons’ accounts, 17 of which were completely cleared of fines! Let’s see if we can do even better this year. We’ve already had one patron step forward to say that if we can gather $500 in donations for Pay It Forward Month this year, they’ll match it! Help us remove fines from accounts and help your fellow community members get back into the library!

As many of our patrons know, once you have a balance of at least $5 in fines or fees on your library account, you have to pay off the fines before you can use your card again. This can keep people from coming back to the library when they can’t afford to pay it off—and fines can add up fast. If your dog chews on a book, you drop a DVD and break it, or you’re just three days late returning the 11 books you had checked out, suddenly you can’t use your library card anymore. By participating in Pay It Forward Month, those who can afford it can help those community members who may not be able to pay their balance down.

There are two ways you can help out this month! The first is to choose a specific item you would like to cover the replacement cost of. Paper ornaments hanging from the tree in the library show what items patrons are currently being charged for, as well as the cost of the item. Select an ornament that has a cost within your budget, bring it up to the desk, pay, and we’ll take care of clearing the cost off of someone’s account!

The second way is let us “keep the change.” For the month of April, any donations given at the circulation desk are going into the “Keep the Change” jar, and, at the end of the month, we’ll randomly draw patrons whose late fees the collected money will be applied towards. Round up the cost of your copies or bookstore purchase in order to help your neighbors out—or you can even just lighten the load of the coins you’ve been toting around in your change purse for the last few months!

However you want to help out, how much you give is totally up to you! Just remember that the library can only accept cash or check as a form of payment, so make sure you’re prepared before you decide to donate.

Help get your community members back in the library, and let’s all Pay It Forward!