Liftoff for Elgin library's 'Space: Dare to Dream' exhibit

June 2, 2007
By JANELLE WALKER SPECIAL TO THE COURIER NEWS
ELGIN -- It was hard to tell at times Friday night whether the rumbling heard inside Gail Borden Public Library came from the thunder outside or in.

While a thunderstorm raged outside, the thunder indoors came from a mock-up of a Saturn 5 rocket launch gantry -- a massive vertical frame used to service rockets -- set up in the library's rotunda.

The gantry shows a life-size portion of what a Saturn 5 -- the rockets used to launch men to the moon -- looks and feels like. The whole exhibit rumbles like a rocket about to ignite.

The rocket mock-up, along with a moon rock, telescopes and several other interactive exhibits, are part of the Elgin library's newest exhibit, "Space: Dare to Dream." Residents and library patrons paid to get a sneak peak at the exhibit Friday night. The exhibit officially opens today and will remain open to the public during normal library hours through Sept. 23, said communication director Denise Raleigh.

Funds raised from Friday's ticketed event go to help the Gail Borden Library Foundation purchase books, furniture and materials for the library branch facility, planned for Bowes and Randall roads. Construction is set to begin later this year.

In a short ceremony in the library's community rooms, the first of the $500,000 the foundation hopes to raise was given to library Director Carole Medal.

Not only did the foundation present its first $150,000 check to the library for the branch, but the board also received $10,000 from the Elgin Enrichment Series and $1,500 from the Elgin Noon Rotary Club.

The two smaller checks were presented by Sharon Jakle, president of the recently disbanded Elgin Enrichment Series and a Rotary member.

"As a thank you to our (noon) speakers, we will donate a book to the children's department of the new branch for every speaker for the next year," Jakle said.

The enrichment series, now in its 11th year, recently decided to disband, Jakle said. The board decided to donate its leftover funds to the branch facility.

Since the new library opened in 2003, said board member Rick McCarthy, the facility has become a pulse point for the community.

"The new library is a social center for Elgin," he said. The museum-quality space exhibit is an extension of that role.

"This is consistent with our educational role," McCarthy said.

The $150,000 exhibit is funded almost entirely by the Grand Victoria Foundation, which promises a large portion of its charitable funds each year to educational projects. The Grand Victoria Foundation was the major donor when the library had a dinosaur exhibit in 2005.

"None of this is possible without the leadership of Carole Medal and imagination of Denise Raleigh," said Toya Randall, the foundation's project director.

Recently, she said, after a conference in Elgin, one of the attendees asked the man at her hotel desk where in Elgin she could go to kill time.

The concierge suggested the library.

The woman, Randall said, told her later that the visitor bureau should talk to the hotel about where to send people looking to see Elgin's sites. So, Randall brought the woman to the library to show her what he was talking about.

"She said, 'Oh, I get it now," Randall said. "We are fully aware of the wealth this institution has brought us in the last few years."