Community Corner

Local Library Officials Head To The White House

First Lady Michelle Obama to honor five libraries, including Patchogue-Medford, in ceremony on Friday.

Officials from the will be at the White House on Friday to receive one of five national awards given to libraries by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for the library's commitment to public service through innovative programs and community partnerships.

Patchogue-Medford Library board president Patricia Seubert and director Dina Chrils will attend the White House ceremony and receive the library's award from First Lady Michelle Obama. Joining Seubert and Chrils will be Zheni Velasquez, the library's designated community member. Each medal winner was asked to select one community member who could illustrate the institutions' impact through a personal story.

Born in Gualaceo, Ecuador, Velasquez immigrated to the United States in 1991, and settled in Patchogue. She initially attended local schools to learn English, but she could not afford to buy a bilingual dictionary. She would eventually find the library's Spanish section and received her first library card. From there, she took computer classes, found a tutor, and eventually attended the library's citizenship preparation classes. In 2004, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

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The Patchogue-Medford Library will receive a $10,000 prize along with the other winners to help raise public awareness of the work the institutions are doing in their communities.

As previously reported by Patch, winning the award was a big surprise for library director Dina Chrils, who said that an anonymous person nominated the library for consideration.

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"We don't even know who to thank," Chrils told Patch. "We were contacted in the beginning of September that we won and we were shocked."

The library was one of 70 nationwide considered, said Mamie Bittner, a spokesperson from the IMLS. Bittner said that the Patchogue-Medford library was rated very highly among the reviewers, who were the staff and boards of libraries and museums throughout the United States.


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