Auction for library a week in
It has been a full week since Starkville Daily News and Chalet Arts announced their partnership to auction off the one-of-a-kind national championship plate where all proceeds will benefit the Starkville Public Library.
The auction has now been live for a full week, and there are still three full weeks left before the auction closes at 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 30. October 30 was chosen because it is the homecoming game for Mississippi State football against the University of Kentucky.
“There will be a lot of alumni in town, MSU fans are coming from all over to watch this SEC West versus SEC East matchup,” SDN General Manager Ronald
Oswalt said.
Of all of the library systems in the state of Mississippi, the Starkville-oktibbeha Library System has fallen into the bottom 15 in funding per capita. It was not until recently that the city and the county have upped their funding for the library system here, but it is still far behind where it needs to be.
“We partner with the library on a lot of our stories, and they are an incredible asset for us. We want to help them in every way possible,” Oswalt said. “Because of this partnership and all of the wonderful things the library provides for a community, we decided we wanted to hold this auction to benefit the library.”
Libraries offer so much more than books, and the director of the library, Phillip
Carter, has even said, “Libraries are probably one of the only places you can go now without the pressure of needing to buy something.”
Having a library card can give anyone access to free books and the internet. The library also has many workshops and informational programs to help the entire community.
With the help of this auction, the library can extend the services offered to the community for free to a possible media studio with podcast recording capabilities and more up-to-date computers.
The auction started at $1,000, and it is currently up to $1,500. To bid on the plate, which is basically a large stamp for the paper, visit galabid.com/spl-cwsplate/.