Janet Michael: Hello and welcome to the Valley. Today I am your host Janet Michael. We are celebrating Library Lovers Month on the show today. Michelle Ross is on the screen with me.

She’s the executive director at Samuels Public Library. We have a special guest with us as well. Lewis Moten is with us.

He is the owner at Code Jamboree. We’re going to talk, Michelle, about a lot of the things that you guys have going on at the library. But I want to start with Library Lovers Month because everybody should be a library lover, right? Right.

Michelle Ross: We have so much to offer. What’s not to love about the library? Just Samuels Library. They’re all awesome. Library Lovers Month is a national thing. So we encourage people to go out to their local library. We have a really cool display right now where you can write what you love about the library on a heart and hang it up, take a selfie with it. We’re learning a lot of things. But the number one thing people still love about the library is books. MMM number two thing is our staff because they are wonderful.

Janet Michael: It’s good that books are number one because that would be kind of…

Michelle Ross: That’s still what we’re most known for. We have a lot of other cool things outside of books. I mean, we have a board game collection. We have video games. We have that really awesome memory lab where you can come and if you have old film strips, digitize them.

I believe we also have a way for you to digitize the AHS tapes with that. And we’re slowly growing that. So there’s more advantageous books, but that’s still the number one thing that people love.

Janet Michael: I can’t believe how many people don’t know that a library card gets them access to so many things online that even if you’re not wanting to get in the car and physically drive over to Samuel’s Public Library, Hoopla and all of the census data and all sorts of stuff is accessible to people with a library card online.

Michelle Ross: I always tell people, why are you wasting money on an Audible subscription when you can get free audio books on your phone from your library through the Libby app or the Hoopla app? And they’re like, no, I can do that next time. Ask me.

Janet Michael: Yeah, always ask first. And I gotta tell you, the number of people that I have told so you join you and Lewis both joined me and Nikki and the whole gang on Friday mornings for the front row chambers, coffee break months ago, it may have even been last year, you mentioned the fact that you guys have free access tickets to the park. Yes.

Everybody I know about being able to go to the library and get a ticket to get into the park for free for a day. I can’t imagine that they sit on the shelf very long for you. Only when it’s cold out.

Michelle Ross: February, not the heaviest usage month for the state park passes, but in the summertime, the waitlist is extremely long.

Janet Michael: I want to talk about day of giving in conjunction with library lovers month because I think sometimes we all forget because you’re a public library. We just assume that that stuff magically appears on your shelves and all of these services that you offer just happen organically because we can come and get things for the cost of a library card, which is zero. Absolutely nothing. But it takes a fair amount of money to run and operate Samuel’s public library on any given day.

Michelle Ross: Absolutely. We receive 80% of our funding through Warren County. They’ve been very generous in funding us. But the other stuff that we do outside of books, outside of having the computers available to people, we need donations to make that happen. And so we’re very grateful to Louis for being our matching donor for the day of giving on February 23rd, because that’s what makes all of the extra stuff available.

Janet Michael: Lewis, you and I go way back on those coffee breaks as well. You haven’t been in the area too terribly long. I think you were telling me before we started recording five years, but in the last year, you have really made an impact with a lot of nonprofits in our area, giving back and being active, whether it’s making a donation or it’s volunteering your time, it’s spreading the word. You really have put your roots down here in front Royal Warren County.

Lewis Moten: It’s a great place to live and I feel a little pulled towards certain directions of where I want to go with the way I want to support. Mostly it’s been the homelessness around front Royal trying to help them out. Another one’s been trying to build homes for the homeless as well.

Janet Michael: I would guess that through your business as co-jamboree, you probably do a lot of reading. So I’m thinking that libraries are probably near and dear to your heart anyway.

Lewis Moten: I grew up with libraries. I used to go to library every week and run and grab books that I could program games at home on my computer. We didn’t have the internet back then. If you want the game, you just program it out on your computer and save it to your cassette drive and play it again.

Janet Michael: Michelle, he’s giving back to the place that helped him get started way back when.

Michelle Ross: And we hear stories like that every day and I am so grateful that we have someone like Lewis here that is able to remember what the library did for them when they were younger and make that continue to be accessible to a whole new generation of young people. It’s really awesome. We have such a generous community here in Warren County and Lewie is a great example of that.

Janet Michael: Throughout the month of February, people can donate but Louis is going to match donations up to $3,500 which ultimately would put $7,000 in your pocket to do a lot of really cool stuff with.

Michelle Ross: Yeah, that’s so much money that we can use to buy additional laptops, get more launch pads, get bilingual materials for ESL patrons. Just so many things that we can do that help change people’s lives.

Janet Michael: I love the fact that he came on board as a matching donor because it means I can give what I can afford and know that it’s going to go twice as far as a $20, $25, even $100 donation is going to double thanks to his generosity.

Michelle Ross: Exactly and that is something that excites a lot of people and that’s why the matching donation is so important.

Janet Michael: Lewis, is that what you had in mind when you and Michelle had your initial conversations is you wanted to do something that would kind of double the impact? Knowing you as a person, it’s not because you wanted your name on something and you wanted people to know that you were giving this money. My guess is you wanted to be able to make the largest impact possible through a matching grant like this.

Lewis Moten: I didn’t really get my name out there before and Michelle actually gave me the information of what she was looking for. I had an idea of what the program consisted of so I was more than ecstatic to actually join in and say, hey, yeah, I’m definitely interested in this.

Janet Michael: And it’s going to be really cool. We were talking before we started recording. I know Michelle’s going to give us details and a little bit for the renovation of children’s department, but that’s going to be really cool when this is all said and done for you, Lewie, to be able to go to the library and walk around that children’s department and think, you know what? I had something to do with this. This is really cool seeing the kids enjoying that section of the library.

Lewis Moten: Everybody’s going to have something to do with this, not just me. I’m just helping them along.

Janet Michael: Michelle, having that renovation is going to expand the services. It’s going to make things so much more streamlined, but those are the kinds of things that people’s donations are going towards when they’re giving to you throughout this month.

Michelle Ross: Exactly. And like I said, the county has been very generous in funding us, but they can only do so much. They have other buildings. They have to take care of to not just the library.

So when we want to do something special like this, we really do rely on those donations. They’re going to be replacing the carpet. And so this renovation is being time to go along with that to kind of decrease the amount of service disruption we will have from their renovation. But we’re really looking forward to creating some more space in that area. Our children’s department is really very heavily used and the teen space is a little bit small. And the teen books have kind of outgrown that area. And what we would like to do is get all of the teen books where the teens are, so that they have their own space over there. And you don’t have three year olds grabbing teen books off the shelf and things like that. And then we’re going to put a self checkout over there too. After story time, our other two self checkouts get really flooded with lots of families. It’s great. And so this will help them be able to get things done in a timely fashion for them, getting it out, get what they need done.

Janet Michael: Well, let’s take a break. Can we come back? Can we talk about some of the other things that are going on? Because while books are the number one thing people love, there are lots of other activities. You mentioned just now story time, you’ve got talks that are coming up. You’re participating in the chocolate crawl. Can we get in the weeds on some of that stuff?

Absolutely. We’re on the screen today having a conversation with Michelle Ross. She is the executive director at Samuel’s Public Library. Lewis Moten is joining us as well.

He’s the owner of Code Jamboree Lewis is matching up to $3,500 for the day of giving, which isn’t just the day. You can go right now to Samuel’s library website and give and it will go into that pot that Lewis will match at the end of the month. We’re going to talk more about all of those things when we come back in just a couple of minutes.

Anya Strimple: Hi, I’m Anya Strimple and I’m a graduating senior at Mountain Vista Governor’s School and we’re partnering with local environmental nonprofit sustainability matters to help you help yourself while helping the planet. Using your bike is best, but we all know it is sometimes unrealistic to bike on the highway. So in this case, choose carpooling to lower carbon emissions. A study found that the US could save 33 million gallons of gas each day if the average commuting vehicle carried one additional person.

So save money and save the earth all while belting Taylor Swift with your work bestie on the way to work. Thank you for listening. This has been an ecologically exciting message from Mountain Vista Governor’s School and sustainability matters. Reminding you that together we can keep the river clean and the valley green.

Janet Michael: Welcome back to the Valley today. I am your host Janet Michael. We are talking about library lovers month. So we are on the screen today with Michelle Ross. She is the executive director at Samuels Public Library. We have one of her favorite donors. I think I can say that she’s probably not allowed to say which one of her donors are favorite. But I can say that I think Lewis is one of Michelle’s favorite donors.

He is the owner of Code Jamboree. Lewis, Michelle is matching up to $3,500. Any donation that anybody makes to Samuels Public Library Day of Giving is the 23rd of February, but that doesn’t mean we can’t give today, tomorrow or February 24th.

Michelle Ross: Right. The matching donation is for the entire month of February. We do like a special fun campaign with the thermometer on the actual day of giving, but we are accepting and matching donations for the entire month of February. We had asked how much we’d raised so far, and I know the last count was at least $400. We will start seeing that rise and rise as the month goes on.

Janet Michael: And it’s very easy to donate. They can do it on your website. Can they do it at the library?

Michelle Ross: They can. We have forms here at the library and actually all of our posters for the day of giving have a nice little QR code on them so you can scan. It’ll take you right to the donation page. You can go to dayofgiving.samuels .net and make a donation. So we try to make it as easy as possible.

Janet Michael: QR codes. I can’t say enough about how amazing they are because you just use your camera. You don’t need any kind of a camera or anything else. You just use your camera.

Michelle Ross: I remember when back in the day, you did have to have an app. And I love that you don’t anymore.

Janet Michael: Yes, we’re dating ourselves. We’re dating ourselves. I try not to do that on the air too often.

Michelle Ross: I will talk about the physical card catalog.

Janet Michael: Right. Samuel’s Public Library does a really good job, I think, of being involved in all of the things that are happening in our community. It’s not always just library stuff. It’s things like the chocolate crawl. You were telling us before we started recording that you guys are participating in the chocolate crawl.

Michelle Ross: We were actually invited to participate by Sue Lawrence of White Picket Fence. And we thought, what a great way to get involved. All we have to do is give out chocolate. So if you come in through the 14th of February, we’ve got chocolate at all the service desks. And we have information about the chocolate crawl in all the businesses that are participating and what their specials are during that week. It’s a little over a week, but about a week.

Janet Michael: You talked about story time earlier and how the self-checkouts get a little backed up when story time is over. You have all of those in library, library-centric type of things that go on there, but then you have other people that come in and give talks on other topics.

Michelle Ross: Yeah, Mitzi Fox is coming in to give a talk called Getting Real About Getting Old, which I think is a really fascinating concept. It is geared towards people who are over 60 or might be caretakers of people who are over 60. And it will teach you all about trying to plan for living arrangements, where to get help, financial planning for as you’re aging and you’re not working any longer.

As someone who, I’m still in my 30s, but I’m going to be getting older soon and I don’t have any children. So that’s a really good topic to start thinking about.

Janet Michael: And Mitzi’s a great person to put that on because she’s using her own experience. She took care of her parents as they aged. So she’s got real life experience. So when she talks about things you need to know, it’s because she didn’t know and had to learn it as she went along.

Michelle Ross: And it’s great because we have people that can come and share that information with us. And we have really great friends of the library members too, which is a separate organization that supports the library.

But they also do a lot of programs. Like Sharon Fisher is a wonderful photographer and she does these great photography sessions for us where she teaches people how to take beautiful pictures. Last month, they went out to Eastern Park and took pictures of birds. This month, they’re doing a virtual session and it’s going to be about capturing love in photos. So that’s going to be really cool.

Janet Michael: Lewie, I think that’s one of the really cool things when you’re making a decision to support some place like Samuel’s Public Library is again, it’s not just for kids or adults who want to read. There are so many options for people to enjoy things in our community simply from that building.

Lewis Moten: They have so many programs. I keep thinking of ways that we can improve the community. And I’m finding out that the library is already doing these things. Like I was thinking we could have a seed swap or something. And then I find out the library has a seed library.

Michelle Ross: And that’s brought to us by the master gardeners. And they have those around a bunch of different libraries here in Northern Virginia, which is really cool. It’s great because a library is a place where all of the community can come together, not just one group or another. It’s a place for everyone.

Janet Michael: And you keep a pretty good list, a pretty good calendar of what’s happening when on your website. And you also do a really good job of putting that stuff out on your social media.

So if new parents have moved to the area and they’re looking to get their kids involved in things they can find out when story time is, somebody like Louis and I who’ve been in the area for a while and we’re looking for something like a seed library. That is all there on your website as well.

Michelle Ross: Yes. And other groups use our meeting rooms. So our meeting rooms are available for nonprofits and other organizations to reserve. If you’re a for-profit, there’s a small fee. And of course, you can’t do any sort of commercial activity on library property, but the mom’s club means here. And that’s a great place for new parents or new moms to come and socialize with other moms. They do activities and things.

The Girl Scouts meet here, the Boy Scouts meet here. And there’s also other writing groups and stuff that meet here too. And all of those events are also on the calendar. So even if you’re looking for something that’s not necessarily a library event, there might be a thing happening here that you’re interested in and you could learn more about and you can connect with other local groups.

Janet Michael: Having those meeting rooms available is huge because there are not a lot of places that you can go. I mean, I know you can use the board room and the room that Nicky has at the chamber, but there aren’t a lot of other options available to you, especially if you need a room that has a screen or has a projector or you need to use some sort of technology with. But those rooms that you have there at the library, you have access to all of that. Right.

Michelle Ross: You have access to a projector, a sound system. And then we have smaller conference rooms too. If you want to do like a small business meeting, things like that. The community center has a space available, but we have a few more rooms than them and they get booked up very, very quickly too.

Janet Michael: The other thing that I love about those rooms is you can book them online. I don’t have to call you. I don’t have to do any of that. I can go to your website and find the day and the time in the room and book it all online.

Michelle Ross: Yeah, it’s super, very easy process. You can’t pay online yet. That’s something that we’re working on, but most people are going to be able to access those rooms for free and the fee is pretty small.

Janet Michael: Can Louie to write you some code to allow you to accept payments on your website?

Lewis Moten: Different services that can already do that. So why do you make the wheel when it’s already there?

Janet Michael: He’s even trying to save you money. He’s giving you money and trying to save you money.

Lewis Moten: It saves time too. So if it’s already there, done.

Janet Michael: Efficiency. Give me the web address again where people can go to find out all of the information that we just talked about, but also to make a donation if they’re interested.

Michelle Ross: All of the information about our events, our offerings, that can all be found on samuelslibrary.net. And for our day of giving donations, you can go right to dayofgiving.samuelslibrary .net. And if you’re going just to our regular homepage, it’ll be right there front and center too. So it’s hard to miss.

Janet Michael: And then what is the address of the library for somebody who wants to come by in person?

Michelle Ross: Our address is 330 East Chriser Road. We are right next to Ressie Jeffries Elementary School and one of our beautiful local parks too.

Janet Michael: The other upside to use in that meeting room is you’ve got plenty of parking. We do.

Michelle Ross: We have a great parking lot. What are the hours of the library? We are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. And then Friday and Saturday, we’re open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. And we are closed on Sundays.

Janet Michael: You got to take a break at some point. When are you going to have time to read if you’re at the library all the time? Lewie, I want to say thank you because I appreciate what you’re doing being involved in the community this way. You and I share a lot of the same outlooks on the causes that you want to support. And I really think this is great for you to be able to support the library this way by giving a lump sum money that other people can do smaller amounts.

And it still ends up having a great impact on the library. So I just want to say thank you for that. And I would like to co-sign that. Thank you.

Lewis Moten: I’m glad to be a part of it.

Michelle Ross: Lewie just does such a wonderful job. We’re very excited to be able to help him promote his business as well through this sponsorship.

Janet Michael: Lewie, if somebody wants to learn more about Code Jambore, do you have a website that people can go to and find out a little bit about what you do and how you do it?

Lewis Moten: Yes, you can go to codejambery.com or you can just look us up on Facebook.

Janet Michael: Thank you both for taking some time today to chat with me. I appreciate it. I hope you end up blowing Lewie’s $3,500 out of the water and you have $10,000 in the bank by the time this whole thing is over. I hope that is manifested.

Michelle Ross: Your words manifested it.

Janet Michael: Get out this weekend. There’s a lot going on tonight as you’re listening on the radio today on the 10th. There is the Cupid’s Market over in Strasbourg. I talked to a lot of the vendors for that last month. Gallentine’s Day is happening at Flower and Water in the Buttercup. Talk to them earlier this week about that. So go out and enjoy a pre-Valentine’s Day weekend. I will meet you back here on Monday with a brand new episode of the Valley today, just a few minutes after noon.