Loganville Rotary Club gives $40k to new library

Loganville club presents check for new building, hopes to prompt more

Pictured left to right during Thursday morning’s check presentation are Sheryl Fambrough, Loganville Rotary Club and Friends of the Library member; Doug Adams, club member and Friends president; Ray Lane and Nicholas Key, co-presidents of the club; Sharon Hansen, club member and wife of Kurt Hansen; Branden Whitfield, Loganville City Council and Friends member; Shannon Singleton, Friends member; Dana Russell, library board member; Mayor Skip Baliles; Terri Braswell, club and Friends member, Wendy Burnham, club and Friends member; and Dan Curry, club and former Friends member. Photo credit: Patrick Graham | The Walton Tribune

The $500 in seed money planted with the Loganville Rotary Club years ago by late Loganville pharmacist Kurt Hansen blossomed Thursday into a $40,000 donation to the Friends of the O’Kelly Memorial Library. The money will go to the new O’Kelly Memorial Library, now under construction indowntown Loganville.

Hansen, who died unexpectedly 12 years ago at the age of 51, left a legacy of community involvement that, in addition to his involvement in the Loganville Rotary Club, included service on the city of Loganville’s planning commission.

Rotary Club of Loganville member, the late Kurt Hansen (right) presents the initial $500 in fund seed money to fellow Rotarian Bill Walker for deposit at Legacy State Bank in 2013. Photo courtesy of Sheryl Fambrough

Hansen started what would become the Loganville Rotary Club’s posthumously named Kurt Hansen Fund with the idea that it should grow into a significant community service resource for supporting large local initiatives.

In the years since the fund’s creation, the Loganville Rotary Club has steered 10% of all of its fundraising revenue into the Kurt Hansen Fund. Augmented by member contributions, and by investment of its revenue, the fund grew steadily over the years to make Thursday’s impressive donation possible. A large part of the reason the club was able to make the $40,000 donation was an ongoing commitment by the Loganville Rotarians to support the fund following Hansen’s death, reflecting their desire both to honor and to emulate the fund’s namesake.

Hansen’s widow, Sharon, said after Thursday’s meeting that the Kurt Hansen Fund retains some revenue even after the library donation, with an eye toward funding additional large projects in Loganville in the future.

“It feels great to see his vision being fulfilled,” Hansen said, before adding that the commitment to the new library is actually “a lot of people’s vision.” Hansen went on to say she and her late husband are “glad tohave a hand in moving Loganville forward.”

“I think he would be proud,” Hansen said as the check was presented to the Friends group. “Kurt’s legacy is our legacy.”

Nicholas Key, co-president of the Loganville Rotary Club, said the $40,000 check presented to the library represents the single largest donation made by the club in its 23 years in existence. Key said the club is “very pleased to support” the library.

Doug Adams, president of the Friends of O’Kelly Memorial Library and a member of the Loganville Rotary Club, said the donation will be honored at the library with a room named in Hansen’s honor. The room will include a framed photograph of Hansen and information about his life and contributions to Loganville’s civic life.

Also on hand for Thursday’s check presentation was Loganville Mayor Skip Baliles, an enthusiastic supporter of the new O’Kelly Memorial Library and a member of the Loganville Rotary Club. Baliles said the $40,000 donation is an indication of wider community support for the new facility, in that it “shows people cherish the idea of a new library.”

Baliles went on to say that libraries now are more than just repositories for books. “The library today is a community center,” Baliles said.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new O’Kelly Memorial Library, located on Main Street at the intersection of Covington Street and Lucy Street, were held in April. The 10,833-square-foot facility, with plans for a second phase of 2,000 additional square feet, will replace the current O’Kelly Memorial Library at the intersection of U.S. Highway 78 and Georgia Highway 20. That 7,162-square-foot facility opened in 1989.