When life hands you a pandemic, you make an online store! The Friends of the Boca Raton Public Library are a group that even if you haven’t met them, you have seen them through all that they do. Boca Library is much better because of them. Boca Raton is much better because of them. And I am definitely the recipient of their amazing talents and innovation.
I first started dropping into the Boca Friends shop to peruse when I had time before the start of my FAU classes. I would drop in, just wanting to look, and would indelibly leave with 5-6 titles every time. Stopping in at their shop eventually became a regular thing. I would make sure to give myself an hour before teaching to stop in, hoping to find the next title that would adorn my bookshelf. The selections are just that amazing. The sale is only as good as the community donations and just by the selection of titles and the people who patron there (pre-Covid), it was quite obvious this store was something very special and unique.
Then COVID hits. All the casual browsing and shopping went away and oh, how I missed the store. And then one day, I go online, and notice that there’s a button that says, “Shop Now.” Of course, I immediately clicked on it and at first, there weren’t many books on sale. But I always managed to find something. And as the days passed, the store grew and grew and last I checked there are 1,803 books posted online for sale. This is absolutely spectacular. Through purchasing and curbside pickup, I started to receive emails from Tracy Wasserman, President of the Board, informing me that my order was ready for pickup. It got to be that Tracy was emailing me about twice a week and we struck up a conversation which led to several other conversations and now, I am proud to say that I am the newest Board Member of the Friends of the Boca Public Library. As they said, the rest was history! I love this group so much and am excited about the future.
I would be remiss to not humbly announce on the blog that we have won the Florida Library Association’s Outstanding Friends Project for our online store! To say that I am delighted to join the Board of this group is an understatement. But I am honored as I look forward to all I can accomplish with this extraordinary group.
Ilena Alvarez, Esq., LL.M in Tax
Founding Partner
I.A. Law, P.A.