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Book club raises funds for new library
The Weekly Drip Book Club was out at Jester King Brewery over the weekend to host a book swap benefitting the Dripping Springs Community Library. For a $25 donation, participants could fill a tote bag with books to take home.
Madison Huerta and Shaina Heller said they learned about the book swap while looking for something fun to do for the weekend.
“We were wanting to enjoy the beautiful weather and come out to the Hill Country,” Huerta said. “We actually looked up Jester King and saw that they had this going on and thought, what a better way to spend our Saturday than to come here.”
Heller said some of their favorite finds of the day were a couple of books by Mitch Albom, an author they both enjoy.
“I've always been wanting to go to a book swap, but I haven't been able to do it yet, so this is my first one,” Heller said. “I brought a couple of books as well. I think it's a great way to endrippingspringsnews.
gage with the community.”
Ashley Tullis, who co-founded the Weekly Drip Book Club with her friend Amber Pierce, said that the proceeds of the sale will go toward fulfilling a pledge the club made to the library.
“The book club was started at the opening weekend of Sunday Bookshop in Dripping Springs in the summer of 2023,” Tullis said. “We thought that there would be maybe about a dozen of us that would get together sometimes. But now the group has grown, and we have 140 dues paying members.”
The club decided to make a $15,000 pledge to the Dripping Springs Community Library.
“We have three years to fulfill that pledge. At this time, we're about $9,000 to goal,” Tullis said.
The book swap is one way to help to fulfill that pledge.
“I don't know the amount of money we raised, but we did bring 100 totebags to give out and we're completely out of tote bags,” Tullis said. “At the end here we had a big mad rush.”
Tullis said these kinds of events show that you don't have to be a $50,000 donor or a $100,000 donor to make a difference -that just a little bit can go a long way.
The membership dues for the Weekly Drip Book Club, which are $25 per year, also go toward fulfilling the club’s pledge. Those who’d like to know more about the club can find the group on Facebook. The whole club reads a book together once a month, but they also have different chapters that are focused on specific genres.
“We meet the third Thursday of every month from 6 to 8 p.m. for our book club at large, and we're doing so at different local businesses where they can accommodate 20 to 30 people at a time for get togethers,” Tullis said. “When the library is completed, that will become our home base, which is why we're so invested in this mission.”
