Donor Society
The Donor Society recognizes The Friends' most generous individual supporters. Society members make substantial annual gifts to The Friends, such as a contribution of $500 or more. Additionally, individuals or families who have made provisions for The Friends in their estate plan automatically become members of our Donor Society. Currently more than 200 individuals belong to the Donor Society.
The annual Donor Society luncheon recognizes the generosity shown by The Friends' contributors who help support the Saint Paul Public Library. The 2010 Donor Society Luncheon, sponsored by Securian, was held on Friday, October 8th at the Town & Country Club. Donor Society members were entertained by Kevin Kling, who shared stories from within his life and his hilarious yet heartwarming book, Holiday Inn. Copies of the Minnesota Book Award finalist book were given to all Donor Society members in attendance.
Kevin Kling's first book, The Dog Says How, brought readers into his wonderful world of the skewed and significant mundane. Kling does it again in Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn, a romp through a yearful of holidays and a lifetime of gathering material. A wiener dog with an amazing capacity for destruction impresses the whole family and contributes to their collection of favorite disastrous Christmas stories. A Choctaw and a nun go trick-or-treating on Halloween. A boy makes a frightening decision every year when he chooses which classmate gets the "Be Mine" Valentine. Kevin takes his mom to a Fourth of July demolition derby–and then he takes an epic trip around the bases at a ball game on Memorial Day. From tomfoolery with his brother in the backseat of their dad's car through his carefully considered instructions for ice fishing, Kling never loses the spirit of his story or holds back on its humor.
"Kevin Kling's stories are not merely delightful. They are surprising, wise and redemptive. He is one of our great national treasures." – Krista Tippett, public radio host and founder of Speaking of Faith
"Kling has an enviable gift for storytelling, a sense of humor rooted equally in pain and whimsy...and an uncanny ability to transform intensely personal memories, especially those of family life, into something instantly recognizable and, at the same time, strangely exalted." – Chicago Sun Times
Kevin Kling is a well-known playwright and storyteller, and his commentaries can be heard on public radio. his plays and adaptations have been performed around the world. He lives in Minneapolis.
In past years, featured authors at Donor Society events have included Biloine "Billie" Young, Peter Brown, Pete Hautman, Mary Logue, Walter Mosley, Rosellen Brown, Patricia Hampl, Judith Guest, Bill Holm, Christopher Cerf, Ellen Hart, Jon Hassler, Vince Flynn and Sandra Benitez.
For more information on becoming a Donor Society member, please contact The Friends at 651-222-3242 or friends@thefriends.org.
