About the Friends of the Corona Public Library

There are approximately 60 of the members of the Friends routinely donating volunteer hours to the Library. Over 50 of these Volunteers work in the BookShop. This past year (July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008) more than 8,575 hours were recorded. The Friends have been keeping track of Library Volunteer hours only since July 1993 – when the current Library building was opened. Sometime very soon the Friends grand total of Volunteer hours in this building will pass the 100,000-hour mark (the total was 97,009 on June 30, 2008.

A few of our many Friends’ Volunteers who have each amassed a total of more than 2,000 hours of service to the Library through the Friends BookShop and other Friends’ activities are mentioned below and will be recognized in a special Library ceremony. Thanks to them for their service!

Charlene Jaggers: Later this month, Charlene will have worked in the BookShop for 14 years. Much of that time she has worked two afternoon shifts a week at the BookShop desk for a total of four hours per week. She is always gracious, friendly, and patient while helping customers find what they need. Charlene moved to Corona from Orange County many years ago to be close to family. She says reading is her hobby so it’s natural to volunteer time in the Library.

Bernie Letts: Bernie is affectionately known among BookShop volunteers as “King of the Dungeon” because of the many hours he spends in the windowless lower level room where the BookShop Sorting and much of the pricing takes place. Bernie started volunteering here in July 2000 - he was trained to worked at the desk but soon gravitated to the dungeon where he separates donated books and audio-visual materials into 63 different categories to be priced. He normally works three to four days a week and likes nothing better than to leave an empty donation container and a clean table in the dungeon.

Carmen Loera: Carmen is the BookShop’s own little turbo-charged volunteer plus. She’s everywhere – every Thursday evening she works a shift at the desk, plus twice a month on Saturdays at the desk; she is the lead person for the magazine “crew”; she stocks in the Shop a couple of evenings a week; she’s a member of the Friend’s Board as the Hospitality Chair, previously serving one year as the Board Secretary; In ’07-08 alone she logged 668 volunteer hours. AND, she has a full-time day-job. Carmen arrived in the Friends’ BookShop as a volunteer in June 2003 and after five years she still says that it’s one of her favorite places.

Joyce Lyons: Joyce has worked every Wednesday afternoon 1:00 to 5:00 at the BookShop desk for the past 10 years plus a few months. That’s commitment with a capital C. During her shift she straightens, shelf-reads and willingly helps price, stamp or do anything else that is put in front of her by other BookShop staff. Never, never neglecting her customers. Her fellow volunteers say that Joyce combines congeniality and helpfulness “with the best of them”. Like most BookShop Volunteers Joyce loves to read. She has been a Literacy tutor and is a long-term docent at the Mission Inn.

Lynda Scott: On her volunteer application Lynda wrote, “I love books and this Library. I want to volunteer in the BookShop because I think I can be of some help”. She filled out that application on February 14, 2003 – other bookshop staff feels certain that she was their best Valentine ever. That she “could help” was an understatement – Lynda quickly learned how to work the desk, sort, price and all the rest. About two years ago, she became the Assistant BookShop Manager. Her computer expertise is invaluable to the BookShop as well as her input as a member of the friends Board for the last three years. She has also done volunteer tax assistance and ESL tutoring in the Library. She and husband Russ (also a BookShop Volunteer) enjoy camping and doing Sierra Club trail maintenance.

Ingrid Wicken: If Bernie is the “ King of the Dungeon” then Ingrid must be the Queen. She has always worked down there since March of 1999 when she started volunteering for the Friends. She is very knowledgeable about books and therefore can sort through a pile of donations faster than anyone (so says the BookShop staff) and then also price many of the non-fiction categories. She’s in the Dungeon, and/or the donation overflow area in the parking garage, three or four times a week. Ingrid is indeed a woman of many talents and interests. She teaches full-time at RCC, has had a book published on skiing and is working on another, has her own Skiing Library building in her back yard, visits used book stores all over the country, is an expert on skiing history in California, and much more.

Our volunteers: Priceless!

The Friends of the Corona Public Library is an independent, non-profit support group for the Library. We were first organized in 1964 by a small group at the old Carnegie Library. That small building, located at Main and Eighth Streets, was the site of Corona’s first true Library. The first "Friends", six Corona women, were dedicated to expanding what at that time were very limited Children’s services. Many old-time Corona residents fondly remember those first story-hours complete with colorful felt-board characters voiced by an enthusiastic narrator. From that humble beginning, The Friends have grown to become an integral and vital part of the Library’s supporters.

Our mission is to create community knowledge, interest and awareness about the Library. And, in so doing, we provide many necessary contributions to the book collection, fund special events and projects, and donate many wonderful physical enhancements to the Library environment itself.

Oh, and we have fun, too!

Friends Event Calendar, click here.
More about Our Projects by clicking here.

Answers to many other frequently asked questions
(FAQ’S) by clicking here.

For a list of current Friends' Officers, click here.