Dons

Dear friends of the library,

On the eve of our 30th anniversary, we have much to be thankful for. The library is alive and thriving thanks to our members, our dedicated team of staff and volunteers, and our generous and steadfast partners.

As we look toward the next 30 years, we are excited to continue to grow, change, and find new ways to provide rich cultural programming and a wide array of books to generations to come.

In 2023, our goal is to raise 12,000€ in individual donations by the end of the year. We hope that you will consider making a first-time gift or renewing your gift today.

We will keep you posted on our progress on our website and social media and in our newsletters.

 

30 reasons to give today…

  1.  We are the second-largest English-language lending library in all of France with a collection of over 25,000 books! 📚
  2. The library gives more than 100 of our members the chance to volunteer their time and talent. As Kahlil Gibran wrote, “You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” 👐🏽
  3. Our wonderful staff! We are so lucky to have Mathieu, Alix, and Mandy on board and to see their friendly faces every time we come in. 😀
  4. We have a truly international reach; our members hail from 70 different countries! 🌎
  5. We are constantly trying out new ways of reaching our environmental goals including recycling old and damaged books sustainably and buying from local vendors. ♻️
  6. We bring English-language programming to French people across Angers–did you know almost 70% of our members are French? 🥖
  7. Our new Anglofams program offers four annual activities to give families with kids of all ages the chance to connect and do fun, local activities together. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
  8. Speaking of kids, our Children’s Hour Wednesday activity groups give kids ages 3-10 a fun way to learn and practice English through stories, nursery rhymes, songs, and games and crafts. 🎶 🎨
  9. And we have tons of books for kids, too. In fact, more than 35% of the books checked out each year are kids’ books. 📖
  10. Who doesn’t love pizza? Our pizza and board game nights are a fun way to practice speaking in English through playing games! 🍕
  11. We work with the network “le BiblioPôle” so that our books can be found in 35 partner libraries around the Maine-et-Loire. 🏫
  12. Our amazing chairperson, Gaëlle Delarboulas, along with the library’s board, do a fabulous job of navigating where the library is now and where we are going. 🧭
  13. We held our first Angers Literary Festival this past year and were delighted to feature five American authors and the Director of the American Library in Paris. Almost 170 people attended and the day was a terrific success! 💡
  14. We hold more than 40 partnerships with organizations across France and the United States including with our sister city, Austin, Texas. 🤝
  15. We serve as a crucial anglophone hub and resource in the rapidly growing city of Angers and are constantly finding new ways to serve the region’s 300,000 residents and 46,000 students. 🏙️
  16. We regularly hold workshops to support university students with writing their CVs and cover letters in English. 👨🏽‍💻
  17. We empower young people and contribute to their development through internships at the library. In 2022, 17 interns completed a total of 866 hours. ⏳
  18. We’ll say it again–we could not run our programs without our amazing volunteers! More than 40 of you generously give your time to run weekly and biweekly activities. 📆
  19. A large part of our collection has been classed by the CEFR language levels (A1-C2) which makes it more accessible for English learners. 🧑🏽‍🏫
  20. We offer tons of resources for teachers including 30 Activity Kits to run storytime in English. 🧺
  21. Where else can you stop in for a free cup of coffee or tea and a friendly chat on a Friday morning? ☕🍵
  22. Not to mention chatting about books in one of our regular book clubs. 📔
  23. We offer language support for both learners of English and French through our conversation groups and one-to-one speaking activities. 🗣️
  24. Our partnerships with the two universities in Angers help us bring more than 1,000 students into our space every year. 🎒
  25. Through our partnership with the City of Angers, the library is a part of city-wide events such as La Nuit de la Lecture, Le Printemps de Poètes and Les Accroche-Coeurs ….  💖
  26. We are a terrific resource for local companies whether they are buying memberships for their employees, bringing us in to offer English workshops on-site, or having us facilitate the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) for their team members. 👩🏽‍💼
  27. We participate in the worldwide network of Lit Crawls. 🏃🏽‍♀️
  28. Are you into playing bridge? Or knitting? Or films? Or hiking? We have something for everyone. 🎴🧶🎞️🚶🏽‍♀️
  29. We are a home away from home for so many which includes celebrating holidays like our upcoming Thanksgiving dinner! 🦃
  30. We plan to be around for another 30 years (and 30 after that!) to keep offering these services to the Angers community. ✨

 

Help us make this a reality with your gift today! You can donate online by clicking here or, if you prefer to send a check or cash, you can fill out this form by clicking here.

And don’t forget! You can enjoy a tax

 reduction of 66% of every dollar you donate. In other words, if you donate 100€, the actual cost to you is 34€.

 

Thank you for your support and we can’t wait to see you in the library soon!

Gaëlle Delarboulas, Chairwoman of the ELLIA Board

Mandy Torsey-Guillet, Director of the ELLIA