Category: Friends News
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Message from the President
New Faces for a New Season! Dear Friends, I am thrilled to be writing my first message to you as the President of the Friends of the Key West Library. (Whew!) We’re closing out a busy and successful season, culminated by giving our annual gift to the library. (See many of the articles below for…
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At the Library — April 2025
Kim Rinaldi, Senior Branch Manager “Pon!,” “Chow!,” “Ting!” No, we aren’t ordering Chinese takeout. We’re playing Mah Jong … at the Key West Library! Every Thursday at 11:30 a.m., join your friends for a few fun rounds of this tile-based Chinese board game, which originated in Southern China in the mid-1800’s and gained international popularity…
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Grant to Friends from Anne and Ross McKee Charitable Fund
Anne McKee often shared some of the experiences of the early years of the Friends of the Key West Library. She was, in fact, the organization’s first president and led the fledging young Friends in many efforts to support our little pink library, even purchasing comfortable chairs when they were needed. She continued her passionate…
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Ruhlman Shakes It Up with Friends Donors
Clockwise from upper right corner: Host Rob Kipness with Judy and Dennis Dutterer; Senior Library Manager Kim Rinaldi; Roberta Isleib with Rory O’Connor and Claire Muhm; Susan and Kevin McGreevy; Kevin McGreevy with Rob and Elise Kipness; author Ann Hood with Roberta Isleib and Elise Kipness; Judy and Dennis Dutterer and Carolyn and John Sangston;…
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Author Michael Ruhlman Talks to Teens
One of the Friends’ board goals this year was to reach out to new audiences. With that in mind and with the help of librarian Michael Nelson, the Friends hosted more than 50 high school students on February 24 to hear Michael Ruhlman talk about his young adult novel, If You Can’t Take the Heat.…
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March Speakers Explore Anthropology to Opera
From left: Greg Wands and Fiona Davis with board member Elise Hart Kipness; Past-President Roberta Isleib and librettist Stephen Kitsakos; and anthropologist Rod McIntosh and Roberta Isleib. Fiona Davis and Greg Wands entertained a full house on March 3 with a lively conversation on their latest works, writing process, and transition from friendship to love and…
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Friends Present $50,000 Check to the Library
The Board members of the Friends of the Key West Library presented their annual gift to the library to Kim Rinaldi, Senior Branch Manager, at their board meeting on March 11. Kim expressed the library’s gratitude, stating that the $30,000 of the total donation provides funds to purchase books (print and electronic). The remaining dollars…
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Thanks to Roberta Isleib, Past President
Roberta Isleib completed her term as the President of the Friends on March 11. The board acknowledged her leadership and contributions at the Annual Meeting. Roberta became our board president in 2020, and, as it did for all of us, 2020-2021 did not turn out to be the year Roberta expected — from the fast…
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Message from the President
A Sensational Season Winds Down! Dear Friends, I was at a neighborhood cocktail party this week and had the most wonderful conversation with one of our members. She complimented me on the latest speaker, fiction writer Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan (wasn’t she lovely?), and then said that the Friends’ Speaker Series is one of the main…
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February 2025 Speakers Celebrate Food, Fiction & Key West
On February 10, two Key West residents presented perfect love letters to Key West, both coffee table books. Leslie Linsley’s book, Key West Cottages and Gardens, celebrates Old Town Conch architecture and takes the reader inside 22 cottages where the personalities of the homes and the owners come to life. Friends board member Ellen T. White’s book,…