The Friends of the Rochester Hills Public Library holds its annual meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 19 in the multi-purpose room of the library at 500 Olde Towne Road in downtown Rochester. The group helps the library through volunteer work and fundraising. The meeting is free and open to the public.

The Sign outside of the entrance of the Friends’ of Library Store inside the RHPL – photo by John Smyntek
The evening will include a pro-forma meeting which will include an introduction of Friends officers and board members, brief financial and operational reports and two presentations: The Volunteer of the Year award and the presentation of a $190,000 check from the group to Library Director Christine Hage.
The Friends group raised the money via its used book and media sales, proceeds from the Library Store and membership dues from its 800+ members, as well as from other fundraisers during the year like: Wine, Wit & Wisdom and the Holiday Home Tour. New members can join at the meeting.
After the annual meeting, the evening’s featured guest speaker will be Anneke Burke-Kooistra. A resident of Mayville, Mi., she lived in Utrecht in the Netherlands from 1942-45 and will tell the story of how her family protected eight Jewish refugees from the occupying Nazi forces. Incredibly, she and two sisters never knew of their presence until the war ended because the children were too young to be trusted with a secret that could expose all involved to Nazi wrath.