July 29, 2005

Friends of Evergreen Library

Dorothy Cisek earns lifetime achievement award

By Dr. Rodger E. Cryer
Special to the Times

The Friends of Evergreen honored Evergreen resident Dorothy Cisek with a lifetime achievement award at a recognition tea held at the Evergreen Community Center on July 20.

Dorothy Cisek recently received a lifetime achievement award from the Friends of Evergreen Library for her outstanding accomplishments within the organization during the past 20 years.

Dorothy has been the most reliable, hard working, conscientious and highly valued member and volunteer of the FEL board of directors. She has literally been the heart and soul of the organization over the years and will continue with the organization as a most respected board member emeritus.

Almost 20 years ago, in October 1985, Dorothy moved into the Evergreen area and promptly joined the Friends of Evergreen Library. Thus began two decades of dedication to promoting reading throughout the community and supporting nearly every program and event at the Evergreen branch.

With ongoing volunteer positions as varied as stocking the book selling area in the lobby to serving as treasurer, vice-president, and president of the Friends organization, she contributed generously of her time and energy.

A tireless worker, in 1994 she successfully helped ensure passage of Measure E by marshaling local support for this critical measure. The next year she accepted her first board of director position as vice-president and the following year took over as president.

In all, Dorothy has served on FEL’s board of directors for at least 10 years, sometimes in multiple capacities.

Dorothy was instrumental in getting the Friends group incorporated as a California 501-c3 nonprofit corporation. She helped to structure the financial condition of the Friends and set a tone of cooperation with the library staff over the ensuing years.

Without public fanfare, she quietly and efficiently continued her service behind the scenes by helping the organization establish a well-organized book sales process and then keeping detailed notes on all the financial records for the group.

From 1997 to 2004 she took care of collecting book sale proceeds and banking FEL revenue every week. In her role as treasurer, she delivered complete and accurate financial reports to the board each month and painstakingly checked paper trails for all FEL’s transactions. Her bookkeeping practices have helped the organization remain solvent and even profitable on behalf of hundreds of area children who have enjoyed the many youth programs over the years.

Among her other achievements, she presided over a long list of special events including the 20th Anniversary Celebra-tion of the Evergreen Branch and a popular Authors Program that brought several award winning writers to the branch. Among these were Harry Farrell, author of “Shallow Grave in Trinity County” and famed Titanic expert, author and movie consultant, Tom Beddingfield.

Most recently she has served on the Public Art Task Force for the new branch now under construction, and various community focus groups as part of the planning efforts for the new branch.

Name an achievement of the Evergreen Friends over the past two decades and Dorothy most likely had something to do with it. She was either the one who thought of the idea or the key person who made it happen.

Yet any listing of her achievements would surely omit the many awards she has silently earned with her special brand of unobtrusive leadership. To quote an anonymous source, “If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way; if you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” Dorothy never finds excuses.