El Paso Library volunteer receives Outstanding Services award

Gretchen Trominski, a volunteer with the El Paso Public Library, received
the Texas Library Association Outstanding Services to Libraries award at
TLA's annual conference in Houston.

Trominski is one of more than 600 volunteers that comprise the Friends of
the Westside Libraries, the largest of all of the El Paso Public Library
Friends groups. She began volunteering for the Friends in 1978, the year the
Westside branch first opened to the public. This branch was housed in a
trailer from 1978 - 1979. In November of 1978 a total of 2,300 square feet
of the Westside Recreation Center was offered to the El Paso Public Library
by the City Parks and Recreation Department. The branch was housed at the
Recreation Center for 10 years.

Gretchen served the Friends of the Westside Branch as Fundraising Vice
President in 1984 a successful campaign began to secure land and raise
$300,000 through grants and private donations to construct a new 7,700
square foot library in west El Paso. The new El Paso Public Library Westside
Branch opened in 1988. Trominski was present at groundbreaking, on opening
day, and to celebrate the Westside Branch's 20th anniversary.

She was also an active supporter of the $26 million dollar library bond
issue that passed in 2000, and worked with local author Robert Skimin to
ensure that this branch was named for library advocate Dorris Van Doren. She
has led the Friends in adopting two more locations, the Jenna Welch and
Laura Bush Community Library at the Northwest Campus of El Paso Community
College and the Armijo Branch in the Segundo Barrio of central El Paso. And
she Gretchen has served on every position of the Board of the Friends of the
Westside Libraries.

"Ask other volunteers of the Friends of the Westside Libraries about
Gretchen Trominski and they will say that no one works harder than Gretchen.
I know that El Paso Public Library greatly appreciates her dedication and we
are honored to recognize her commitment by awarding her the Texas Library
Association's Outstanding Services to Libraries Award," said Pat Smith,
executive director of TLA.