The Friends of the Dallas Public Library is asking for donations to help build the new Forest Green Branch Library.
Donors have already given about $35,000 to the organization in honor of Karen Blumenthal, a longtime journalist who once was the editor of the Hillcrest High newspaper. Blumenthal, who spent more than 10 years working to boost library funding, died in May; she was 61.
Before she died, Blumenthal had put together a team of volunteers to help raise money for the Forest Green branch.
The Friends of the Dallas Public Library has a wishlist of items for the branch:
- Furniture and equipment for learning and play, and a teen reading area
- Technology including early literacy computers, a robotic building center, laptops and a wireless sound system
- Resources to fund programs such as school-year and summer presenters and performers
- Funds to expand and improve the Forest Green materials collection
The organization wants to raise more than the $50,000 needed to cover the total cost of $85,000 for the library. Any donations that exceed that amount will go toward an endowment to support “programming and materials enhancement” at the location.
The new library, which will be 19,026 square feet and have 64 parking spaces, will replace Dallas’ smallest branch library. Construction is ongoing at 9619 Greenville Avenue.
Donations can be made at this link. To make a donation over the phone, call the Friends of the Dallas Public Library at 214-670-1458. Checks payable to the Friends of the Dallas Public Library with “Forest Green” written in the notes section can be mailed to 1515 Young Street, 7th floor, Dallas, TX 75201.
Karen Blumenthal, a Hillcrest High alum and former Wall Street Journal bureau chief, died in May 2020. Photo courtesy of the Friends of the Dallas Public Library.
