Audrey Wild was honoured at the Salt Spring Public Library’s annual volunteer appreciation event on June 5 for over 30 years as a volunteer. The following is the summary written by library board chair Judy Nurse and read to the group assembled at the Salt Spring Island Sailing Club.
After retiring as a school librarian in Edmonton, Audrey moved to Salt Spring in 1989 with her husband Bob. She quickly began volunteering on the circulation desk at the old library, and then rose to the overall supervisor position, working several days a week and introducing the Dewey Decimal System to organize the books.
Audrey was also part of the change to a library computer system and the end of stamping due dates into books. Audrey worked through the transition to the new library and volunteered there as a shift supervisor. Now Audrey sends out the overdue notices from home via phone and computer.
Audrey is nothing if not a librarian. When she and Bob moved to Meadowbrook she volunteered at their library, once again introducing the Dewey Decimal System to the non-fiction selection. That requires a lot of sleuthing!
She and Bob are committed to a lifetime of service and social justice work, having been active in the Anglican church, Ometepe Coffee and the Raging Grannies. Audrey is a librarian by nature; one of her core values meshing perfectly with a fundamental value of libraries — that of equality.
Audrey reads non-fiction and biographies, and keeps her 92-year-old mind and body in shape doing puzzles and Aquafit. She is a wood carver and has three of her pieces displayed in the new library. She also loves to garden, and is renowned for having grown masses of tomato starts each year to be given to various charities to sell.
We are so proud of Audrey and the work she continues to do on behalf of the library and our community. She is most deserving of the award for Lifetime Achievement in Library Service.