Seal Beach : Volunteers Keep Library Stacked

This place, its boosters often say, is a town of volunteers.

When government can provide only a limited level of service, residents step in, donating the time and money to give that something extra to Seal Beach.

Perhaps nowhere is this spirit better represented than with the Friends of the Library, which this month elected a new president and bid farewell to the outgoing one.

Over the last 18 years, the organization has provided the Mary Wilson County Library on Electric Avenue with books, computers and other equipment that it otherwise would do without.

“Almost anything that the head librarian asks for, we try to get if it’s feasible,” said outgoing president Robbie Watkinson, 68, of Seal Beach. “Our head librarian is the envy of all other librarians” in Orange County.

Watkinson is stepping down as head of the more than 100-member all-volunteer group after serving three years as president. He is being succeeded by Ruth Eschbach, a Leisure World resident and member of Friends of the Library for eight years.

Eschbach was previously coordinator of the group’s popular silent auction, in which people bid on donated books and other items displayed at the library. The friends also sell donated books inside the library. Last year, they collected about $12,000.

They have sponsored a variety of children’s events at the library, including puppet shows and storytelling programs. Research books and a dictionary of music were recently purchased with help from the organization.