Looking ahead ...

Please sign up to be on our special mailing list of Friends to receive occasional Help Needed messages.

The aim is to have a pool of Friends to augment the eight Board Members to respond to requests, sometimes on short notice, for materials or extra pairs of hands and eyes to assist the person-in-charge with an activity or to help set-up or tear-down. 

Here are examples of up-coming activities needing extra hands:

• Nov 14 - Macrame Gnomes 
• Nov 22 - Holiday Cards 
• Dec 13 - Children's Craft Fair 

and activities needing materials:

• Dec 6 - Annual Wreath Making - Greenery, including pine-cones, from your yard and ribbons will all be put to good use at this popular workshop.
• April 18, 2026 - Annual Clothing Swap - Donate  gently used, clean clothes.
• On-going - Fairy Garden - Please read below to learn where and what this is about.

If you are interested and could be available to help, please click below to be placed on this mailing list. If you have questions, include them in the message when you sign up. Thanks!

NOTE: If you are not already a registered volunteer with FVRL, please:

1. Click Here to register AND
2. Contact Sherry Braga, Volunteer Coordinator, at 360-906-5075 or volunteer@fvrl.org to state your name and interest to be a FoCPL volunteer.

Contacting Sherry alerts her about you before landing in   her very large database of registrants.

Thank you!

TLC for the Fairy Garden - Over the years, the Friends have supported improvements to the Library Courtyard. Most recently, the Fairy Garden benefited by some refurbishing. Fairy Garden?

A CPCL librarian, now retired, began creating dioramas around the base of the courtyard's very big tree, now known as BFT or Big Friendly Tree.*

Here is the Fairy Garden as it looked on April 20, 2024 and on November 4, 2025. 

Volunteers are needed to periodically trim plants that obscure and put upright the little objects that get knocked over. 

When the occasional "Help Needed" message mentions the Fairy Garden, it's a request for some puttering about with gardening gloves and trimmer. Thank you!

*In 2018, the Library nominated their big tall Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) for the city's Heritage Tree Program. According to the Friends Monthly Meeting Minutes for 2023-2024, the tree received the Heritage Tree designation in 2023 and on April 20, 2024, at the dedication ceremony in the Courtyard, the tree was duly named BFT.

TEEN 5-Minute Film Festival - Friends supported this fourth annual festival held on September 27, by contributing toward the rental of Battle Ground Cinema and providing the trophies. According to Rachael Ries, the festival was "well attended (92) and was really successful."

Winners for 2025:

• Best Drama- Light Again by Matthew Bell
• Best Comedy- F.A.K News by Ellie Mueller
• Audience Favorite- When Hide and Seek Goes Too Far by Harrison Adams

View the 2025 premier

2025 Annual A&I Dinner and Auction - The Friends sponsored two tables at the FVRL Foundations's gala fundraising event held on October 16th. It was an entertaining evening listening to the personable author, Robert Dugoni, followed by an enthusiastic crowd awed by the competitive bidding for prizes, especially for the prize of Dugoni using the winning bidder's name as a character in his future novel.

The event is also a fundraising opportunity for Friends groups by submitting auction items and receiving the winning bids. Thanks go to the Board and Friends who pitched in their ideas, time and energies to create these enticing baskets to successfully raise funds for FoCPL.

• • • Warm Winter's Night (l)
    • Camper's Last Chance (r)
    • Bob Ross Meets Claude Monet
    • Learn to Paint a Rob Ross Painting!
    • Kickin'it with World Class Martial Arts!

Highlights of Board Actions - 

September Monthly Meeting: those present elected the 'new' board of officers: 

• President – Donna Aase (2027)
• Vice-President – Melissa Webb (2026)
• Secretary – Jean Kent (2027)
• Co-Treasurers – Ruth Chamberlin (2026) and  Stephanie Sanchez (2027)

Thank you for being willing to continue. 

October Monthly Meeting: Rachael suggested A Friend Liked This Book column. Linda, our Bookstore Manager, jumped at the invitation, thus launching the column in this issue. 

News about Library Matters - 

The Librarians, a 92 minute documentary, will be streamed by PBS Independent Lens on February 9th, 2026. The interviews with public and school librarians "across the U.S. examine how book review policies are shaping their communities." Here's a review that describes what you can expect to see and hear.

I recently read a book donated to the Cascade Park Library Friends Bookstore. The title is  I Attacked Pearl Harbor: The True Story of America's POW #1 by Kazuo Sakamaki. This is his story of being the first Japanese prisoner of war. It starts with his training to attack the U. S. and goes through his life in prison camps. I never read non-fiction, but something made me read this. I am so glad I did. I am told that the library has now bought the book.

Linda McHan, Friend

(Rollston Press: 2017, 154 pages ; ISBN -13 9780997074840)

Dear Friends,

Thank you for coming in to browse.

Thank you for donating and purchasing books.

Thank you for your generous contributions.

Thank you for being a Friend.

There's something for everyone. Here's a sampling of programs over the next few months. Don't forget and don't miss out - mark your calendars NOW!

November 8, 2025 - Saturday - 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM - Celebración de Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead Celebration

 November 14, 2025 - Friday - 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM - Macrame Gnomes

November 22, 2025 - Saturday - 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM -Holiday Card Workshop

December 2, 2025 - Tuesday - 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM -  Adults Creative Crafts: Neurographic Art

December 13, 2025 - Saturday - 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM - Kids & Tweens Money Makers: Children's Craft Fair

December 23, 2025 - Tuesday - 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM - Red Cross Blood Drive

January 13, 2026 - Tuesday - 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM - Even War Has Rules

January 17, 2026 - Saturday - 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM - Introduction to Independent Writing & Publishing

January 23, 2026 - Friday - 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM - Mobile Device Basics - Android

February 6, 2026 - Friday - 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM - Taming the Medicine Cabinet

February 20, 2026 - Friday - 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM - Mobile Device Basics - Apple

February 25, 2026 - Wednesday - 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM - Red Cross Preparedness: Be Red Cross Ready

March 25, 2026 - Wednesday - 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM - Red Cross Preparedness: Hands-Only CPR

Check the CPCL online calendar for a full listing.