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Friends of Libraries and LiteracyRio Rancho, Sandoval County, New Mexico |
The Friends support libraries and fund literacy programs for children, teens and adults in Sandoval County, New Mexico. A simple one-page form (available in Acrobat PDF and MS Word formats) is all that is required to request a grant.
Most grants are $100 to $1000. Requests received by the second Monday of each month are usually reviewed within the month. Note that we do not fund furniture purchases.
Examples of recently approved grants can be seen on the Home Page.
By reading to babies and toddlers, parents help their children develop language skills that start them on the path to success in reading and learning. The Friends and national literacy program Books for Babies help new parents in this role.
New parents at Presbyterian Rust Medical Center are offered a free Books for Babies kit from the Friends that includes board books for baby, a form to sign up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library's free book mailed every month to the child, and brochures with reading tips and early literacy information from nationally-recognized educational organizations. The kits are available in both English and Spanish.
Sales of the Friends' Tote bags help fund the Books for Babies program. These sturdy bags are available at the at the check-out desk of FriendShop.
Friends of the Library of Rio Rancho was incorporated in 1982 as a non-profit 501(c)(3) all-volunteer charity to establish a library in Rio Rancho. The Friends raised money to build the first Rio Rancho library (now Esther Bone Library) and contributed $80,000 to build and furnish the second library (Loma Colorado Main Library).
For 37 years the Friends operated stores in the Rio Rancho Public Libraries and conducted monthly sales of community-donated books and media. The profits were used to support the two libraries and to fund library programs for children, teens and adults. Sadly, in 2020 the Rio Rancho City administration unilaterally dissolved the partnership.
The Friends changed their name to Friends of Libraries and Literacy, Rio Rancho Inc. and expanded their mission to include libraries and literacy programs in Sandoval County, New Mexico. To fund these programs, the Friends continue to sell community-donated books and media at FriendShop that opened in January 2021 and at FriendShop Too! in the Bernalillo Public Library that opened in February 2022.
Newsletters are emailed to members and volunteers. To view previous Newsletters, click on the title below.
The newsletters are in PDF format. Most computers and smart phones come with PDF viewing software already installed. If you don't have viewing software, Adobe's Acrobat Reader can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website.