Friends of Liberty Lake Library recognized for efforts

A group of dedicated volunteers who saw the creation of a new library for Liberty Lake were awarded for their efforts recently.

The Washington Library Association gave the Friends of the Liberty Lake Library the 2006 Washington Library Association Distinguished Service Award.

“We’re pretty excited and pretty proud,” said Valorie Marschall, president of the Friends. “We were pretty speechless at the fact that we won.”

The friends association beat out several others from around the state to win. The group has been around since the library broke away from the Spokane County library system. For a while, they ran the library with their own homemade check-out system. When the city took over the library, the friends stayed around and continue to help with fund-raising and reading programs.

“They were very important from the get-go,” said Georgette Rogers, a technician at the Liberty Lake Library who nominated the group for the award. “They basically started the library.”

The award will be given April 21 at a luncheon in Tacoma.