Enlarge Dori Sanders and some Friends of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library.

Posted: July 17th, 2010 Greg Lacour

To raise money for the troubled Charlotte-Mecklenburg library system, about 50 people headed down U.S. 321 on July 17 to a place far from any computerized card catalog.

They took a day-long field trip on a bus to the home of Dori Sanders, an author and a peach farmer who lives in Filbert, S.C.

Sanders was born and raised on the property, which her father purchased in 1915. (Filbert's about 15 miles due south of Gastonia.) At about 80 – she won’t say how old she is – she’s written two books: the novel “Clover" and the cookbook “Dori Sanders’ Country Cooking.”  Over the years, she’s worked closely with Novello Festival Press, the library system’s publishing arm.

With the system reeling from severe budget cuts and reduced hours and staff, Friends of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library organized a trip to see Sanders’ farm, eat catered barbecue, stroll the grounds and sell Sanders’ and Novello Press books.

About 50 people paid $40, which covered the hourlong bus trip, lunch under a big tent and music, provided by Harry Taylor on banjo and Tom Hanchett of the Levine Museum of the New South on fiddle. All proceeds went to the libraries; the system’s development director, Dick Pahle, said he expected the trip to raise about $1,000.

“It’s all to promote reading,” Sanders said. “My father, an old, rural elementary school principal in the days of two-room schoolhouses, the horse and buggy, said, ‘If you read, you can go anywhere in the world.’

“I’m a writer, and writers adore libraries. We’re talking books here.”

The library system is struggling to raise money from whatever source it can find. Severe Mecklenburg County budget cuts have led to reduced hours and staff cuts throughout the system and emergency funds from Charlotte and other cities and towns throughout the county.

To date, the library system has raised about $425,000 in individual contributions, which picked up dramatically in March when the library Board of Trustees threatened to close most of the system’s branches.

“That’s the day the community realized what it would be like to do without the library system,” Pahle said. The individual donations have been great, he said, “but they’re only part of the solution.”

The libraries will have to raise money more aggressively, he said. In the works: “Rock and Read,” a 5K fundraiser Sept. 18 around the Scaleybark, and a countywide book sale in the fall. The libraries will have to depend on such events “to help buy some time,” said Friends of the Library president Harriet Smith.

The situation isn’t the greatest, but the day was. It was warm but breezy, and you could stock up on books at one table, then saunter to another for fresh peaches, $11 for a big basket.

“It’s a good way to get like-minded people together as a group,” Pahle said. “Because Dori’s a writer, someone who believes in the power of books, it seemed like a natural thing to do.”

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