• Marianna Nothern is a retired school teacher who has served with both USD 501 and USD 450. During her teaching years, she was awarded a group Fulbright grant for study in Ghana, West Africa. She is the recipient of the Instructional Improvement Career Award presented to her by USD 501. Her volunteer activities include service with the Mulvane Women’s Board and Grace Episcopal Cathedral. Currently, she serves as the director/curator of the Cloister Art Gallery.
• Jeanne Slusher is employed with Security Benefit Corporation as a 2nd vice president and director of audit. Her responsibilities include oversight and management of the internal audit function for the corporation and its subsidiaries. She is active with the Topeka Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors. Her volunteer service includes leadership positions with Ronald McDonald Charities of Northeast Kansas, the Family Service and Guidance Center, and the Washburn Women’s Alliance.
• Roger Underwood is a Senior Vice President with Community Bank. He previously served as a library foundation trustee and was its chair when the library was rededicated in 2002. His volunteer service includes top leadership positions with the Topeka South Rotary Club, the Greater Topeka United Way, the Boys and Girls Club, and the First United Methodist Church.

Other trustees serving in 2011 include Mary S. Allen, Jeff Chanay, Glenda DuBoise, Dr. Robert D. Parman, and Dr. Patty Pressman.

The Library Foundation’s purpose is to help secure resources that support the collections, programs, services, technology and physical facilities of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. The Foundation pursues this purpose by seeking philanthropic support, by providing conscientious stewardship of the assets in its care, by encouraging appropriate community partnerships, and by advocating on behalf of the library’s mission in our community.

Spring Burn

The library is fortunate to have not only individual donors, but also groups, clubs and organizations that recognize the value our library gives to the community. One such group is the Western Sorosis Club which graciously funded the purchase of two photos by Jim Richardson for the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery.

Photographer Jim Richardson is best known for his work for National Geographic Magazine and his black-and-white documentary photographs on rural Kansas life.

In a letter to the Western Sorosis Club members thanking them for their gift, Richardson states, “I am honored to have my work as part of the library’s respected collection. Having spent the formative part of my career in Topeka, it seems like my pictures are coming home.”

Summer Dreams

The Alice C. Sabatini Gallery aims to enrich the lives of library customers and to be a cultural center for Topeka and Shawnee County. The Gallery supports the mission of the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, especially in enabling life-long learning.

You may find more information regarding The Alice C. Sabatini Gallery at: tscpl.org/gallery.  Jim Richardson may be contacted at jimrichardsonphotography.com

Discover ways you can help your library at The Library Foundation. 785-580-4498 or foundation@tscpl.org

Western Sorosis was organized in Topeka in 1893 by Margaret Hill McCarter and Mrs. H.E. Roby.  Their dream was for this club to be to the West what the first women’s club in the United States, Sorosis, was to the East.

Their purpose in organizing this club was to provide “a source of constant inspiration for better living, for higher ideals of women, and for the active participation of women in the life of the community.”

The name Western Sorosis is an adaptation of the New York club’s name and is derived from the Greek word meaning “a collection of flowers on one stem.”

Richardson discusses the two photographs purchased by The Western Sorosis Club for The Alice C. Sabatini Gallery:

“…one of my all-time favorites—a photograph I call “Summer Dreams.” I made that photograph in 2003 on a farm near Pierre, South Dakota, during a story forNational Geographic that appeared in the May 2004 issue.  The subject: the fate of the Great Plains.  The young lady in the photograph, during her daily round of farm chores, paused to daydream while tending her rabbit.”

“…Patterns of the Spring Burn from my coverage for National Geographic Magazineof the tallgrass prairie of Kansas.  That work appeared in the April 2007 issue. The  photograph is one of the most popular here in my Lindsborg gallery.  I made that photograph in spring 2006 as I was flying in a small aircraft over the Flint Hills near Bazaar, Kansas.”

Warren Taylor

As a retired employee of TSCPL, I was excited to know  of the founding of the Edward and Mary Wilder Society. Established by The Library Foundation, this organization recognizes those who have (or will be) remembering the library through their wills or trusts.  I was pleased to be asked to become a member of the society, as I have made a bequest to the library in my will.

After a thirty-one year history of employment with the library,  I have very strong feelings about its importance to the community and the folk who use it. I cannot imagine Topeka without this institution or the significant role it plays for the  people. As citizen-users, it is our responsibility to insure that this organization continues  to thrive and be made greater by our contributions to it.

We all have special places in our hearts for the things that have been most important to us. For me the library is such a place.  As a member of the Wilder Society, I am pleased to join with many others in proclaiming my enthusiasm for it.

I am happy to urge my fellow Topekans to become involved in their library by indicating a special gift now or in the future. Then they too can enjoy the camaraderie of the Wilder Society and the company of those of like minds.