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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Stephanie, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Thank you so much for your leadership on this! Being able to bring this level of attention to our state is incredibly valuable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">This is a wonderful story of the impact of a library in a rural community and the power of a small group of people working to accomplish a goal. I also appreciated learning more about this recent history in
Oregon. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Thank you, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Wendy <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Libs-Or <libs-or-bounces@omls.oregon.gov>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Libraries of Eastern Oregon via Libs-Or<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, February 10, 2025 8:00 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> libs-or@omls.oregon.gov<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Libs-Or] ALA's short documentary on the O'Brien Memorial Library in Blue River<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">Hello colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">some of you may remember I had the pleasure of escorting then ALA President Emily Drabinski through Oregon late last spring, visiting the Eugene Public Library and several small and/or rural libraries,
including the OSU Cascades campus library, the Grant County Library in John Day and the Cyber Mill in Prairie City, and the volunteer-run O'Brien Memorial Library in Blue River, which was destroyed in the Holiday Farm Fire in 2020. At the stop at the O'Brien
Memorial Library, we were also joined by volunteers and Board members for filming as part of a documentary film on libraries, "This Place is Our Place," that Emily was coordinating through grant funds she had been awarded.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">I am so excited to share the finished short film highlighting the wonderful story of how the O'Brien Memorial Library came to be — that story itself is wonderful, as Mrs. O'Brien first started running
the library on the front porch of her house! — and how the library is a visible lighthouse, as Board Chair Connie Richardson calls it, of regrowth and return in the Blue River community. I hope you will take the opportunity to watch and share!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif"><a href="https://www.ala.org/obrien-memorial-library-red-fire-blue-river" target="_blank">https://www.ala.org/obrien-memorial-library-red-fire-blue-river</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">You can see photos of the grand opening of the new library at their website, <a href="https://www.obrienlibrary.org/">https://www.obrienlibrary.org/</a>, donate to the library at <a href="https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/AF9BYHGLLJSPN">https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/AF9BYHGLLJSPN</a>,
and donate to the ALA Disaster Relief Fund to help libraries who have been impacted by natural disasters at <a href="https://ec.ala.org/donation/IRO-0866-GENALD">https://ec.ala.org/donation/IRO-0866-GENALDhttps://ec.ala.org/donation/IRO-0866-GENALD</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">Stephanie Chase</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">Executive Director, Libraries of Eastern Oregon</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">PO Box 233, Baker City, OR 97814<br>
541/362.4258</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">she/her/hers</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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