OQUOSSOC — The Rangeley Chamber of Commerce presented its Community Service Award  to the Rangeley Public Library at its annual get-together dinner on June 25 at Bald Mountain Camps, Mooselookmeguntic Lake. Ninety-three members and guests attended. Kit Caspar, Community Service Award Committee and Chamber board member, presented the award.

Caspar said, “Our Community Service Award this year is a departure from our usual style. In past decades, we have honored individuals, or perhaps couples, who have made extraordinary contributions to the life of the Rangeley region.This year the Community Service Award Committee, made up of the past four recipients and two Chamber board members, has chosen an organization that we feel epitomizes cooperative service as it is practiced in the Rangeley community. We are proud to honor the Rangeley Public Library as it celebrates its 100th anniversary.”
He said, “Unlike most public libraries, ours in Rangeley is not owned and operated by the town of Rangeley. It is, in fact, a private entity, which is supported in its community service missions by a ‘coalition of the willing,’ to steal a phrase from another context. The towns of Rangeley, Rangeley Plantation, Sandy River Plantation and Dallas Plantation do raise tax revenues to help with the costs of operating the library, but over half the financial support for our library comes from voluntary individual contributions and fundraising efforts by the board of directors and the Friends of the Library, all of whom volunteer countless hours to this institution.”
“In effect, the essential community services of literacy, education and communication provided by the Rangeley Public Library are made possible by the willing service of municipalities, donors and volunteers; it would seem thus that the library is an example of community service squared,” Caspar said, “And so I am honored to present the Community Service Award to Claire Chase representing the Rangeley Public Library as current president of the board of trustees. Claire, we give thanks for the library’s contribution to the life of the people of the Rangeley region for the past 100 years. And we wish you another successful 100 to come.”