Stafford Supervisors to Appoint New Library Board Member on Tuesday
There have been three applications to fill the seat vacant since July.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Email Adele
The Stafford Board of Supervisors is scheduled to appoint a citizen representative to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday.
Three county residents—Christine Hamblin, Jennifer Ashby, and Janet Brown—have submitted applications to fill the position, which has been vacant since July.
According to her application, which is linked with the online agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Hamblin, a resident of the Garrisonville District, would like to serve on the library board to “review books and policies affecting the citizens of Stafford County.”
“I am an avid reader and enjoy being informed,” she wrote.
Hamblin’s application notes that she currently volunteers for the Good News club at Winding Creek Elementary. The Good News Club is a ministry of the Child Evangelism Fellowship, which trains volunteers to teach weekly Bible lessons for ages 5 to 12.
According to its website, the Child Evangelism Fellowship is a “Bible-centered, interdenominational, worldwide organization, composed of born-again believers whose purpose and mission are to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, disciple them in the Word of God, and establish them in a Bible-believing church for Christian living.”
Hamblin has also volunteered in the past with Stafford Emergency Relief through Volunteer Efforts (S.E.R.V.E.); Brain Builders, an after-school homework help program; the North Stafford High School PTO, swim team and dance team; H.H. Poole Middle School textbook selection committee; and as a classroom helper.
The second applicant, Jennifer Ashby, will be retiring in June after 33 years as a school librarian, 26 of those with Stafford County Public Schools. She has also taught public speaking and interpersonal communication as an adjunct professor at Germanna and Northern Virginia community colleges.
Ashby wrote that she is interested in serving on the CRRL board because she “believes strongly in the power of a library to change people's lives.”
“I know the public library can offer something that affects everyone in the community,” she wrote. “I would love to support their work and continue doing something in my chosen field as well and would be honored to represent Stafford's interests in the library.”
Ashby wrote that her training in communication “could be helpful in a Trustee role both on the board and with the community.” She said her work has not allowed her much time to volunteer, but that she looks forward to volunteering at the library and with Shadow Cats Advocates after retiring.
Janet Brown, a resident of the Rock Hill district, is the third applicant for the position on the library board. Brown is retired from the federal government and is a Virginia Supreme Court certified Mediator/Mentor, according to her application. She has a business offering coaching, mediation, and facilitation for couples and co-parents.
Brown wrote that she wants to serve on the library board because she has been a patron of Stafford’s libraries in their different forms since arriving in the county in 1987.
“I always felt valued, and the librarian was always willing to help me,” she wrote. “The library is a way to preserve our history, while keeping us up to date on what's happening currently in our community and the world. Additionally, libraries promote literacy.”
Brown said her longtime knowledge of the library and its programs combined with her public speaking skills will help her be “an ambassador to the community for the system.”
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