Speakers

Serving Immigrant Populations

Soaring to Excellence

Carolyn Walz

Carolyn Walz has worked at the Estherville, IA, Public Library for forty-four years. For the past thirty-four years, she has been the Library Director. A community advocate, Carolyn has served on Boards of various community organizations, is active in her church, received the Iowa Volunteer Hall of Fame Award for Emmet County in 1991, and was Estherville Citizen of the Year in 1995. In 1993 through 1995, Carolyn oversaw a successful referendum, capital fund-raising, the move out of an old Carnegie building, a library building project, and finally a move back into the newly renovated Carnegie building. As Library Director, Carolyn has hosted Hispanic Hospitality Night, cooperates with the local school in an Early Books program for young Hispanic children, and hosts a weekly Mixer Club social time for middle school students. Carolyn serves as "Team Mom" for the Iowa Lakes Community College Women's Basketball Team, and she and her husband John are both sports enthusiasts who frequently travel with the college teams. Each year on September 11, Carolyn keeps her library open for the entire 24-hours in recognitionof the extraordinary power of libraries and as a symbol of everything antithetical to terrorism, hatred, bigotry, and fanatacism. Carolyn is thrilled to represent Iowa libraries in this Soaring to Excellence teleconference. She may be contacted at: cleewalz@yahoo.com

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