The Grande Prairie Public Library’s “Forgiving for Giving” campaign has served up hundreds of pounds of goods to the Grande Prairie Food Bank while waiving over $1,700 in late fees.
“Forgiving for Giving” allows users of the Grande Prairie Public Library to have late or overdue fees waived by bringing in non-perishable items.
Marketing & Communications Manager Michelle Rempel says they aren’t sure just how much food they brought in, as they didn’t have a scale big enough to get the number finalized. She adds without the help of Grande Prairie residents, none of this would be possible.
“A lot of people came in, and for every item brought it, $2 was waived in fines, and it was a great success this week, so we are very happy to support the food bank.”
“It gives people another way to get rid of their fines so they can come back and start using the library again, and a lot of food here; a lot of people will be helped in Grande Prairie so that’s great,” she adds.
Rempel says the library stopped the program back in 2015 but after some careful thought, officials decided to give it another shot.
“We thought we would give it a break for a few years, but now that it’s back I think we will probably end up doing it again next year.”
She adds they don’t plan to stop events like this at ‘Forgiving for Giving’, as they’ve already got the next big exchange program in mind.
“We have great staff, and they come up with a lot of fantastic ideas. We will be giving trees over the holiday season, and that will be going to Odyssey House and Bandaged Paws.”
Enough food items were brought in to waive late fees on 1006 overdue or late items in the library system.
