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- Casino Nights In 1989 the Friends of the Library were casting around to find a new fundraising project, and the possibility of participating in the Provincial Government's casino revenue scheme was raised. After much discussion and various delays, we applied for and were assigned the casino nights of January 6, 7 and 8, 1992. The proceeds were pledged towards the Bookmobile. The Friends then applied for a second licence to hold a charity casino, and were given the dates of February 22 and 23, 1993. The proceeds from this went towards furnishings and equipment for the new Youth Services Department and also enabled us to make a contribution to the Capital Campaign for the Library extension. We subsequently participated in casinos on March 21 and 22, 1994, and May 24 and 25, 1995, after which we were informed that the Gaming Commission would not consider another Licence until 1997. Accordingly, a working group was set up to make an application as soon as possible in 1997. This group was comprised of Irene Caudwell, Carmina Davila and Joanna Knight Before the application could be finalised, various documentation to be approved at the Annual General Meeting had to be awaited - year end accounts, list of 1997 officers and the annual budget. The application had to be accompanied by a statement of "Use of Proceeds" which proscribed the project on which the resultant revenue was to be spent. This was prepared by the Chief Librarian. Looking back through the files, it is hard to believe the amount of meetings, forms and paper expended on the application! Our preparation paid off, and we were granted a casino licence for December 12, 13 and 14 - 42 hours of actual casino, not taking into account time for training and briefing; build up and the nightly two hours of accounting after closing at 2 am. Finally, on February 9, we received a cheque for - wait for it $33,587.23! This is the amount unofficially announced at our AGM, less GST. The great thing about good news is that it overrides all preceding frustrations - the necessity to train (at $55 per person) additional volunteers to meet the new rules; the postal strike; and the freezing of the Provincial Charity Gaming Trust. The duration of the casino was broken down -administratively - into shifts with three leaders appointed to cover two shifts each, and volunteers allocated to shifts according to availability. The team leaders -Carmina Davila, Anne Graves and Joanna Knight - undertook responsibility for their team members in terms of certification, transport, welfare, and so on. Everyone arrived very promptly and well prepared for their shifts. Everyone was cheerful - even during the "down" times when there was nothing to do. We were all apprehensive - if not downright nervous - but we kept one another buoyed up making it a very positive experience. We enjoyed the time spent together in such an unusual setting! A profound "thank you" to Friends' volunteers Aldo Benzan, Barbara Cupit, Carmina Davila, Ann Goodhart, Judy Gosney, Joanna Knight, Ron Lucas, Wanda Osborne, Brendan Rowell, Joanna Scott, Joan Thomley and Juanita Tupper, to associates and family supporters Taylor Ashley, Lillian Chow, Jim Cupit, Anne Graves, Cheryl McGregor and Jim Tupper, and to working group member Irene Caudwell. Thank you, indeed. At the next meeting of the Friends we will be hearing about the proposed Language Learning Centre, for which purpose the proceeds are pledged. The next meeting of The Friends will be on Wednesday February 25 1998 at 7 pm in the Peters Meeting Room Betty Neilson Joanna Knight Ted Hill