King Foundation awards $15,000 grant to Willimantic Library

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    WILLIMANTIC — The tiny Willimantic Library received a big gift recently that will help beautify and preserve the former schoolhouse and make it more energy efficient.
    The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation has awarded a $15,000 grant to the library which will pay for insulation, interior painting, a new heating system, combination storm windows and more books.

Observer photo/Mike Lange

    PATRIOTIC DONATION — The State Daughters of Union Veterans presented a new, all-weather American flag to the Willimantic Library last week. Installing the flag, left, is library volunteer David Thayer. It was presented by Estella Bennett of Guilford, a past state president and current patriotic instructor of the organization.

    Dave Thayer, who applied for the grant on behalf of the library, said that volunteers “were pleasantly surprised by the approval. When we put the application in, we were hoping to get enough funds to get started before winter. This grant will take care of almost everything.”
    The Willimantic Library is in the former Norton’s Corner one-room schoolhouse which sat unused for many years until a group of residents recently started a library for the community of 150. The historic structure was built in the late 1800s and used as an elementary school until the 1960s.
    Although it’s only open limited hours, the Willimantic Library has power, heat, free Wi-Fi and a growing collection of books for all ages. “We’re slowly but surely building up our collection, but the Stephen King grant included $2,500 for new books. We will certainly make good use of the funds,” Thayer said.
    In recognition of the efforts of the volunteers, Estella Bennett of Guilford, a past president and current patriotic instructor of the State Daughters of Union Veterans, presented a new, all-weather American flag to the Willimantic Library on behalf of the organization last week. “Part of our program is supporting non-profit organizations by presenting flags to them. This year, we chose the Willimantic Library and the Parkman Historical Society,” Bennett said. “The community should be very proud of what they’ve accomplished.”
    The library does have an American flag – with 48 stars, Thayer noted. “That would make it more than 50 years old,” he said, since the last two states to join the union were Alaska and Hawaii in 1959. So the historic flag will stay on display inside the library.
    The King Foundation was founded by the well-known author and his wife in 1986 and has made numerous donations to libraries, big and small.
    They’ve promised $3 million to the Bangor Public Library toward its $9 million renovation project if the library finds a way to raise the balance of the funds.
    The King Foundation has also awarded nearly $300,000 in grants to Maine libraries this year for renovations, books, technology and educational programs, according to the Maine State Library. These included $15,000 to the Caribou Public Library to replace the front steps and part of the walkway.
    But these are only the grants that have been made public. In the letter accompanying the check for the Willimantic Library, grant administrator Stephanie Leonard wrote, “You may publicize this award as long as you state that it was the result of a grant application. However, publicity is not our preference.”
    But as Thayer put it, “They certainly deserve some kind of recognition.”