Vote for Mount Prospect! Library trying to get online votes for Pepsi grant

Mount Prospect residents can vote for more than just local American Idol contestant Lee DeWyze.

If area residents cast enough votes this month for the Mount Prospect Public Library, it could help the library's satellite site at 1711 W. Algonquin Road get funding for a portable computer training lab.

The lab would be used to help the satellite site's users - mostly low and middle income families - become computer literate.

To vote, go to www.mppl.org/pepsi and register with the site as a voter.

Library officials learned this month that their appeal for $25,000 in funding to the Pepsi RefreshEverything Grant was accepted to its list of May projects. Now, all library patrons have to do is vote online for the project, which they can do every day.

"All we keep hearing from patrons is how desperate they are to learn how to use a computer," says Carolynn Muci, marketing director.

The Mount Prospect Library project is one of 1,000 competing for the grant this month. Every month, Pepsi funds 32 new projects, awarding a total of $1.3 million to projects that draw the most votes from the public.

Landing the grant would enable library officials to obtain 10 laptop computers and make the necessary broadband upgrades, as well as purchase new software, curriculum materials, afford instructor fees and build storage facilities.

"We can't win, without the votes," Muci adds. "People can vote once a day, every day."

Expanding facilities at the library's satellite site, also known as its south branch, has been on its wish list for some time. However, because of decreased funding and budget cutbacks, officials needed to find new and creative ways to fund their initiatives.

"Pepsi is giving away millions to fund great ideas," Muci says. "We're thrilled our project has a shot at it."

Mount Prospect's South Branch is one of a consortium of services bundled inside the Community Connections Center, located near Busse and Algonquin Roads. Its location borders Arlington Heights and Elk Grove Village, and consequently the center serves more than just Mount Prospect residents.

Currently, it has four computer terminals with Internet access, but they are almost always in use, Muci adds, making access to them limited.

With the grant money, library instructors would teach everything from using Microsoft Word and opening an e-mail account, to navigating the Internet and setting up an Excel spreadsheet.