Andrea Hummel
Many of us in the Sun Lakes community think of the volunteers here as angels. There are so many volunteers who make life better in so many amazing ways. This summer, though, a volunteer with Friends of the Library really earned her wings. Perhaps even her halo! Here’s how it all happened.
Eva Gunnoe has worked tirelessly for the Sun Lakes Friends of the Library group. She is, in fact, one of the two people for whom the FOL Bookstore is named. In addition to being an officer of the group, she spends many hours volunteering in the bookstore, pricing, shelving and weeding through donations. Some days, the donations are heavy, requiring a lot of work. Other times, they are light, allowing the volunteers time to visit with the customers. The day in question was a busy day.
While Eva was working, a gentleman brought in two big boxes of books. She moved them into the workroom and finished what she was doing, then started sorting through the latest donation.
As she worked, one of the books fell to the floor and money fell out! Looking in another book, Eva found more money! The more books she sorted through, the more money she found: $10, $20 and even $50 bills!
Dumbfounded, Eva went back to the first book and carefully searched through each one, looking for some clue as to who the mystery donor was. She found a name written in several of the books and then, voila!, a sheet of address labels!
By this time, it was late, and the library staff was getting ready to close up. Eva had already started meticulously noting the title of each book and the dollar amount in each one, so she gathered up her notes and the money and went home. Next stop – the local phonebook.
Eva found a listing for the name on the address labels, so she called and left a message with the woman who answered, being careful not to mention the money.
She waited all the next day for the mystery man to call – no luck. The next day, she called again and a man answered. He explained that his wife suffers from memory issues and had not given him the message. Eva responded that there had been something in his books that she “thought he would like returned.”
When the mystery donor met Eva at the library, she was delighted to return the money – $966 in all. Eva never had a second thought about returning the money.
That Eva received the Crystal Award three years ago, “recognizing those who make Sun Lakes a great place to live,” is no surprise to anyone who knows her. And now, another angel in the form of a Sun Lakes volunteer has won her wings. v