Library windows offer patrons opportunity to create lasting legacy

Thanks to an innovative fundraising program, there will be more than just sunlight shining throughthose 485exterior glass panels of the new Central Library .

Windows of Opportunity is a program that allows donors to have their names embedded into the newdowntown library, which opens its doors to the public on Thursdayat 10 a.m.

Christine Gingerick, the library foundation's director of donor relations, spoke with the Calgary Eyeopeneron Monday about Windows of Opportunity. She shed light on some of the more compelling contributors to the program, which has already generated thousands of quotes from posterity-minded Calgarians.

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For a $100 tax deductible donation, a donor gets enough room to display their nameor a short message(up to 35 characters).

For $2,018, donors get an entire window to themselves, up to 100 characters,and the message stays there for 10 years.

For $5,000, a donor's inscription up to 200 characters long will remain posted for 25 years.

Pastafarianism

Among the more than 1,750 Calgarians who have already donated to the program, there is one identified as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

"It's an actual thing. It's Pastafarianism," said Gingerick,"which is actually a recognized religion in some countries. Ananonymous donor made a donation for a window, and he's found that most donor recognition is kind of boring. So he uses Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (The) full inscription is Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster: May You Be Well Sauced."

That's one of thousands ofquotations that donors have immortalized, Gingerick says.

"Some are serious. Some are funny. (There are)some really memorable quotes about books (among them), like 'Sorry, they're overdue again,' or 'Books don't snore. Sleep with them,'" she added.

There's also a quote from fictional character HermioneGranger for Harry Potter fans:"When in doubt, go to the library," she said.

Book Club Challenge

The only stipulation regarding quotes is that they be tasteful, Gingerick said.

"We didn't have to refuse any. People were great," she said.

Funds raised by the Calgary Public Library Foundation go toward funding library programming, she said.

Among the donors are 30 book clubs, each of which responded to the Annie Would Be Proud Book Club Challenge, named after Annie Davidson, who in 1906 started the Calgary Women's Literary Club, which still meets.

There's also the Final Chapter Book Club, the Wine Book Club & Drunken Poets Society, and even the Slow Readers Book Club.

Some of the quotes sing the praises of libraries, she added, particularly one from physicist Albert Einstein, no less.

"The only thing you absolutely have to know," Einstein is reputed to have said,"is the location of the library.'"

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.