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HOME > Civic Groups > Improvement Club > History > Lotus Williams 1987 account
ANNANDALE
IMPROVEMENT CLUB
article in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Monday, October 14, 1960
I
LIKE IT HERE
by George Grimm
Annandale, Minn.--At noon hour, Tuesdays and Fridays, as many as 150
children rush down the block to the village library.
They are among the readers who borrowed a total of 4,500 times last year
from the 2,200 books in the collection.
Quite a story behind that old library---and a group of 3 dozen very
determined Annandale women.
Back in 1899, citizens formed the Annandale Improvement Club.
Those gals decided the village needed everything from garbage disposal
to a library, said one of the two current Annandalers who told me the story.
Whats more, they made things happen.
All of a sudden, they had a nice piece of property and a building
donated.
Over the years, the women have worked mightily for their library.
Weve had every sort of rummage sale, bake sale, apron sale, the
girls said. We staged an annual
library day, serving coffee and doughnuts to get some of the non-users inside
the place.
The consolidation of schools brought more youngsters within a block of
the library. Thats why the noon
hour openings for them.
We pay a professional library, add volunteers, the girls said.
New books are expensive. We
had to raise more money. We got sick
and tired of sewing aprons and trying to sell them to each other.
Last summer, their new idea brightened downtown Annandale.
We decided that so many women have gardens, we could sell flowers
every Saturday, they said. No
florist in Annandale, so we saw a place for us.
Every Friday night, from June until September, the phones were busy in
Annandale.
How are your flowers? How
many can we have? What are your best
ones? were the inquiries.
Bridge tables were set up on the main street and, at 50 cents a bouquet,
business was as brisk as it was colorful. They
were netting $35 from 10 until noon regularly.
The library fund had found a new source of revenue.
We sold flowers for the butcher counter, the bar, the drugstore,
they said. Nobody was far away
from them in our village any Saturday all summer.
Whats more, as the 3 dozen members of the Improvement Club interested
others in the library, gardens began to be more
respected.
Everybody had fun out of it, I was told.
We bought containers from a florist supply house in Minneapolis to
replace the coffee cans we used at first. We
supplied weddings and church altars. When
a new grain elevator opened in Annandale, the merchants bought fancy floral
decorations--from us. We did well
for the library with that one.
The girls arent relaxing, now that the flower growing season is over.
Theyre tempted to try a Christmas idea that would brighten Annandale
homes and business places with something live
and seasonal.
We want to keep our library growing, they said. After all, we women have done just that every since 1899!