CARLYLE - Wayne Wilson is the 2023-24 president of the Carlyle District Lions Club.
Wilson said each year they make donations to organizations to help them offset costs or to make purchases that are otherwise not covered.
The Lions also help groups that have a lot going on, such as the Dickens Village Festival Committee.
Each year the Dickens Festival hosts judging for the best-decorated home at Christmas time and this year the Lions decided to do the judging for them to take a little off the committee’s plate. This will take place the weekend of the festival.
They donate to the Carlyle & District Food Bank each year so the volunteers can purchase the necessities that are not donated.
Another organization that benefits from the Lions is the Carlyle Public Library, as they received a $5,000 donation.
Naomi Twietmeyer is the Carlyle branch librarian, and she is grateful for the funds.
Twietmeyer has held this position for 1 1/2 years, and she loves her job as she enjoys offering the many activities that the library provides.
During her tenure, she realized the library needed books that were inclusive, intergenerational and cross-cultural.
She explained that Carlyle and the surrounding areas have many different cultures, and they should all have the opportunity to receive books that are geared in their direction.
Twietmeyer feels a library is meant for everyone, and all people should feel safe and welcome in one.
Carlyle and area people are very supportive of everyone, and this is how it should be, according to Twietmeyer.
The library is only open 35 hours a week, and in the month of September nearly 1,000 books were checked out, giving the branch an average of 33 books per day leaving the library. She was unable to say the amount of people that come through the doors, but this is kept track at the head office on a quarterly basis.
This proves that libraries are still very much in need and books regularly need to be updated. Over the years, books get damaged and need replacing.
Recently an order for 47 books was placed at a cost of $1,200. Although paperback books are less expensive, hard copies have a longer lifespan and a higher price tag.
Coming soon to the library will be spicy romance, which are popular graphic novels that have photos and wording, Indigenous authors on forging, gathering medicines and different religions.
In her search she tries to purchase local authors or books from Saskatchewan writers. If there is an author a person might be looking for, one simply needs to let Twietmeyer know.
It is Twietmeyer’s hope to have all people, of all ages, all cultures to feel at home in the library and most of all to feel safe and to be themselves no matter what they believe in.
