May 2, 2008 — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Katy Benson, Director, Maxwell Memorial Library, 672-3661  kbenson@onlib.org Maxwell Library to host community party celebrating 90 years Camillus, N.Y. --- Ninety years ago this month, the people of Camillus met to form the Camillus Library Association. Trustees and staff moved a relatively few armloads of books into the library’s first location, a single “dark, dingy and dismal” room above Abert’s Plumbing Shop, according to Mary E. Maxwell, the head librarian from 1920 to 1957. It didn't move to its current home, a light-filled former church, until 1926. The library now called Maxwell Memorial will celebrate its 90th anniversary with a big, festive, free party for the community Saturday, May 31, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Leroy Street will be blocked off from West Genesee to First Street for the day, and a tent will be pitched in the library parking lot. West Genesee High School music students will perform throughout the day, while former longtime library trustees Lee Goetcheus and Kay Benedict Sgarlata will offer roving history lessons about the library through the decades. Sister Joan Sauro will reprise her popular memoir-writing workshop, focusing on participants’ earliest, fondest or in other ways most memorable memories of libraries, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Maxwell’s main reading room. Meanwhile, children will be drawing their library memories onto muslin squares, to be made into a quilt. Children may also go to the Community Room to hear local Library Stars read stories. At 12:40, world-renowned literacy advocate Ruth Colvin will give the day’s keynote address in the sanctuary of First Methodist Church, directly across Leroy Street from the library. Officials of the state, county, town, village and library will follow with brief greetings and proclamations. Then it’s time to cut the cake and eat it, too! Maxwell Library launches its new oral history project and archive in the afternoon with that morning’s memoirists being invited to record the pieces they wrote. At the same time, Bubble Man will be entertaining families with his popular show, and library staff will be on hand to demonstrate the library’s new computer system, including how to use the public access catalog and online databases, how to download digital audiobooks, and more. The 90th Anniversary Celebration also officially kicks off the library’s annual fund drive. The library’s most significant yearly fund-raiser was moved from November to May partly in response to donor feedback, but also to announce the anniversary and a major and generous gift challenge: An anonymous donor has pledged to match contributions for audio-visual materials and equipment up to $5,000, for a total of $10,000.  To get the ball rolling, each Maxwell Library Board trustee made an individual pledge toward a total board contribution of $1,050. Throughout the day, Friends of Maxwell Library will be raffling geraniums as door prizes and staff will be giving out anniversary memorabilia, popcorn and balloons. Registration is requested only for the memory- writing workshop. Individual programs were made possible in part by a state grant secured by Senator John A. DeFrancisco. A grant from Friends of Maxwell Library paid for the 90th anniversary memorabilia. Many, many community organizations and businesses have offered gifts in kind, monetary gifts and discounts toward this event, and all will be named and thanked in the anniversary program.            Maxwell Memorial Library is located at 14 Genesee St. in the Village of Camillus. Call 672-3661 or visit the library website, www.maxwellmemoriallibrary.org, for more information.