Providence Community Library Will Accept Food Instead Of Fines During Amnesty Week!

*Donations Will Benefit Food Bank and Neighborhood Merchants Will Offer
Special Deals and Prizes to Patrons*

Providence Community Library (PCL) will hold its 2016 amnesty event from
April 11 to April 16, and for one week, patrons will be able to return
overdue items and give non-perishable food items in exchange for fines. PCL
patrons can donate one can of food for every $20 of fines owed, the fines
will be waived (with a few exceptions) and the food donated to the Rhode
Island Community Food Bank. To make things more fun, every patron who
returns an item, checks out a new item or receives a new or replacement
library card during Amnesty Week will receive a raffle ticket and a chance
to win prizes such as a Kindle, restaurant gift cards and gift baskets.
Amnesty Week will conclude with a raffle drawing and a party featuring
music, entertainment and free food, thanks to our sponsors! The big
celebration will be at Mount Pleasant Library on Rhode Island Library
Awareness Day, Saturday, April 16 from 12:30P.M. to 2:30P.M.

PCL decided to move its annual amnesty appeal from February to April in
order to take advantage of the milder spring weather and also the fact that
April 10-16 is National Library Week! Overdue materials are a major problem
for PCL, just as they are for all lending libraries; last year, PCL chased
the return of more than 9,000 missing items and donated more than 950
pounds of food. “We aren’t looking to punish people during Amnesty Week,”
said PCL Program Coordinator, Michelle Novello, “we just want our stuff
back!” Missing books, DVDs and other materials deplete library collections
and frustrate other patrons, particularly if they are popular items.

PCL has negotiated special Amnesty Week discounts for PCL library card
holders with neighborhood merchants. Hope Street retailers Blooming
Blossoms, Kreatelier, J Marcel and Rhody Craft will give patrons 20 percent
off purchases and there will be discounts for diners at the Punta Cana
Bistro on Broad Street and the Suite Tart salon on the West Side. Festival
Ballet Providence will give PCL cardholders a 20 percent discount on
tickets to performances of *Swan Lake *at The VETS (April 29-May 1).

At Amnesty Week’s concluding celebration, patrons will enjoy free Domino’s
pizza, a performance by the amazing Providence brass band *What Cheer?
Brigade* and the unique talents of comic book illustrator and improv artist
Eric Fulford. The lucky holders of the winning raffle tickets will return
home with a brand new Kindle, gift certificates for dining at
the Olneyville New York System restaurant and gift baskets donated by
Narragansett Beer and the Suite Tart beauty salon.

For full details of Amnesty Week activities and a complete list of offers
from participating merchants, visit our website at
www.provcomlib.org/amnestyweek .