Arlington Heights library names foundation members
Lauree Harp, a longtime resident of Arlington Heights, is organizing a group of volunteers who will donate their time as founding board members of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library Foundation.
An event and marketing management professional, Harp is a former Frontier Days Festival co-chair and founding board member of the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre. She received the 2013 Community Spirit Hearts of Gold Award, and served as the first executive director of the District 214 Community Education Foundation.
She has chaired the Arlington Heights Quasquicentennial Committee and the Special Events Commission for the Village of Arlington Heights.
Other volunteers working on the foundation include Miriam Cooper, Betsy Kmiecik, Gary McClung, Michael Mulder, Claudia Starck and John Walsh.
Cooper is a resident of Arlington Heights and an attorney with The Law Office of Miriam Cooper & Associates, LLC in Rolling Meadows. She is a former Township High School 214 Educational Foundation trustee and was a District 214 board member from 1989 to 2017.
Arlington Heights resident Betsy Kmiecik is a senior human resources executive and former director/vice president of human resources with the Daily Herald Media Group. Kmiecik lives in Arlington Heights and has served on the boards of the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce and the Arlington Heights Historical Society.
Gary McClung, Arlington Heights, retired in 2014 after a 40-year career that includes compensation and benefit consulting, human resource management, retirement planning and financial counseling. He served on the Arlington Heights Industrial and Commercial Development Commission and as a board member of the Arlington Heights Police Pension Fund, First Presbyterian Church and the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre.
Michael Mulder of Barrington is a senior vice president with Village Bank and Trust/Wintrust Commercial Banking in Arlington Heights. He is a current board member of the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce and has served as a Rotary member and a board member with the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Harper College.
Claudia Starck is a broker with Baird and Warner Real Estate and has more than 30 years of volunteer service to the community. A 44-year resident of Arlington Heights, Starck has served on the Arlington Heights Special Events Commission, Village Bank and Trust Community Advisory Council and was the founder and manager of the Arlington Heights Farmers Market.
John Walsh, Arlington Heights, is a platform architect and technology leader with a 17-year career at Northwestern University in Evanston. He is a member of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) and the Arts Commission for the Village Arlington Heights.
The foundation is a separate entity from the Friends of the Library. The Friends celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018 and has raised more than $1.5 million to date from the proceeds of book sales they organize several times a year and a book boutique on the first floor of the library.
Foundation board members will focus on individual, foundation and corporate gifts, as well as planned giving opportunities. The group has filed the paperwork to be recognized as a tax-exempt 501(c) (3) nonprofit entity.
The foundation and Friends will work side by side, with a mutual focus on providing the library with revenue sources beyond property taxes. To donate to the foundation or for more information, visit ahmlfoundation.org.