While a fair chunk of the news media focuses on the terrible floods hitting the Mississippi and the big rivers of Manitoba, the disaster at Slave Lake, Alberta has sort of slipped under the radar. This northern Albertan town has been devastated by a major forest fire. Miraculously, there are no reports of injuries and deaths, I’ve heard that as many as forty percent of the town’s buildings have been reduced to ash. Evacuees are, at this point, waiting anxiously for news about when they’ll be allowed to go home.
Among the buildings destroyed was Slave Lake’s library. The beautiful new Rotary Club building had just been opened a year ago, and it and the collection it housed are now gone. My friend and mentor Marsha Skrypuch has passed along a call to help rebuild the library and restore the town’s collection. The Peace River Library System is coordinating this rebuilding, and is asking for books. New and nearly new books (no more than two years old) may be shipped to the Peace Library System where they will be catalogued, processed and stored until a temporary library is opened in Slave Lake.
If you would like to help Slave Lake’s library rebuild, you can send your books (remember, new, or nearly new, and in good condition) to:
Peace Library System
8301 - 110 Street
Grande Prairie, AB
T8W 6T2
ATTN: Books for Slave Lake Library
Remember to cover the costs of your books’ shipping. I hope you can participate in this very worthy endeavour.