Sam Street browses the collection at Newmarket Library
Newmarket Library user Samantha Street’s family and friends donated £100 to the library as part of her recent pearl wedding anniversary celebrations.
Samantha, known as Sam, and her husband held their 30th anniversary party on Sunday 23 June and asked guests to donate to their local library rather than buying them gifts.
Sam grew up in Yorkshire, but has lived in Newmarket for the past 13 years. She said:
“My guests completely understood the reason why I chose to donate to the library service. Books and libraries have been a massive part of my life from a very young age - and as most guests were either big book lovers themselves or in teaching, they were truly happy to donate to such a worthy cause!
“Collecting £100 when there were only a small number of guests was a wonderful surprise and I was very proud to present it to Kate at Newmarket.”
Newmarket Library manager Kate Ashton said: “We were surprised and delighted to receive such a generous and thoughtful donation from Sam and her guests. As per her suggestion, we will be using this donation to fund a children’s activity at Newmarket Library later on in the year. We thank her very much for her generosity.”
Suffolk Libraries business development manager Nikki Hulse said: “We would like to pass on our congratulations to Sam and her other half on their wedding anniversary and are absolutely delighted that they asked for donations to Suffolk Libraries! In today’s challenging financial climate, we appreciate any support people can give for our services and activities, which enrich the lives of people of all ages across Suffolk.”
Earlier this year, Sam met up with us to discuss how our libraries have helped her during both good and tough times. She said:
“Libraries were my first independence - being able to catch the bus by myself and choose what books I could get, it was my first port of call, it was comforting.
“When we moved into our rented house with no wifi for six weeks, we all had to pile into the library and sort out our council tax, our TV licence and everything.
“It’s sad that as times have gone on, people don’t cherish libraries as much as they should. They are actual pillars of the community.”
Suffolk Libraries is an independent and charitable organisation which has been contracted to run the county’s library service since 2012. Find out how you can support your libraries →