The Benson Memorial Library is honored to have been named the 2019 Partner of the Year by the Oil Region Alliance at their 2019 annual meeting on Thursday September 19, 2019 in Franklin, PA at Dawndi’s at Lucky Hills Golf Course. At the ceremony the library was also presented with honorary citations from R. Lee James, Glenn Thompson, Scott Hutchinson recognizing the work of the Benson Memorial Library in the community and their partnership with the Oil Region Alliance.
Executive Director Justin Hoenke:“Over the past few years it has been such a great experience working with the Oil Region Alliance on many programs and events both at library, the Tarbell House, and more. When we all work together, we accomplish amazing things and the ones that benefit from these partnerships the most are all of our community members. Titusville and the entire Oil Region area are an amazing place to live and we’re always happy to be a part of making it just a little bit more amazing. Special thanks to Juliet Hilburn, Becky Stahl, and Jessica Hilburn for all of their extra hard work with this partnership and all of the events and programs that they’ve organized and ran through the years.”
(end Press Release, back to Justin)
Receiving this award today feels great. I’ve long thought and talked about how public libraries need to grow, work with as many people and organizations in the community, and expand what they do for their community for quite a while now. An award is a moment in time to recognize the work and organization or an individual has done. That moment in time comes, the moment passes, and from that its onto the next step in growth. This one feels so great because (for me at least) it shows that this belief, that this idea that public libraries should grow and expand to work with more of their community, is getting somewhere and that people are recognizing the power behind this idea. This is positive change and growth, and to me that’s a huge victory.
One more time before I end this post: this award would not have been possible without the kindness, caring, and hard work of Juliet Hilburn, Becky Stahl, and Jessica Hilburn. Y’all are good people who believe in your work and are not afraid to try something new. Never lose that.
