FOPLA Major Gift Presentation to OPL

Pictured from left to right: OPL Board Vice Chair and Chair, Kathy Fisher and Matt Luloff, FOPLA President and CEO Kathleen O'Connell Renaud, Trustee Harvey Slack, OPL Chief Librarian and CEO Sonia Bebbington, Trustees Alison Crawford, Rawlson King, and Catherine Kitts

 

OTTAWA – On April 9, 2024, at the Ottawa Public Library Board meeting, the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association (FOPLA) had the great pleasure of announcing a gift of $750,000 to the Ottawa Public Library “Unlock Potential” campaign, in support of the new OPL Central Library and joint facility with Library and Archives Canada (LAC), Ādisōke.

“We are proud to be commemorating more than 20 years of friendship with OPL and contributing to the development of this important community space in the capital,” said Kathleen O’Connell Renaud, President & CEO of FOPLA.

The gift will fund, in part, the restoration and installation in Ādisōke of several OPL public art pieces, including the stained-glass window from the Main branch on Metcalfe Street. The window honours literature, writers, and readers, and is the only remaining piece of the original Carnegie-funded library that opened in Ottawa in 1906.

This is one of largest gifts the Friends has ever made to OPL. Owing to the foresight of FOPLA’s founders and its’ past and current Board members – including Danielle McDonald, former OPL CEO and current OPL Chief Librarian & CEO, Sonia Bebbington – a fund was created and grown over the last decade to invest in the Library’s future. The monies for the gift were raised entirely from used book sales by Friends’ volunteers and the generosity of Friends’ donors and members.

Since its creation in 2003, FOPLA has donated more than $4,500,000 to OPL.

Thank you all, especially our volunteers past and present, for making this gift possible.