ROB MURRAY: I’m speaking with Michelle Preston and Brian Callaghan today. We’re here to talk about the 2021 Canmore Library Endowment Tribute Campaign honouring Helmi Bracco. Brian, tell us all about Helmi.

BRIAN CALLAGHAN: Where does one begin? A life partner, great friend, great educator, great mother, a person who wanted to give to the community in every way. She was very active in the life of the library on the library board for years. Helmi was really passionate about all things related to literacy. She saw books as part of society’s commitment to literacy, to inclusivity, the freedom to travel and meet new peoples. That’s what she instilled in our family. Our house was always full of library books. She liked giving books away. We’ve participated in the literacy backpack program out of Exshaw School to get books home to the children in Morley. To this day I’m finding the books with her invocations written into them, and I’m giving them off to my grandchildren. She also loved to meet authors in town and loved to have them over. She did book study and book clubs. All those things, long before we had Google, we had to learn how to find a book in a library. That was our pathway to adventure and meeting new cultures. She used to say reading and learning about new cultures is the antidote to prejudice. I now see my daughters instilling these very same quotes into the ears of their little grandchildren. I have posted many pictures of my grandchildren sitting on my knee with me reading to them, so the circle is complete.

RM: How did it all come together to have Helmi associated with this endowment fund?

MICHELLE PRESTON: Our endowment fund was established a couple of years ago through the Banff-Canmore Community Foundation. We had two founding donors, the Friends of the Canmore Library and Margie and Elliot Bingham. Our goal with the endowment fund was to ensure that we have long-term sustainability for the library. This year, because it’s a milestone year for the library, the 50th anniversary, one of the things we wanted to do for the endowment was to try to reach our first goal of $100,000. This month, we thought that we would do a tribute campaign for the very first time, and when we were looking at someone that we could honour the memory of Helmi immediately popped to mind because of her background as a strong library supporter who was deeply committed to literacy and books. Because she was so involved in the library and we have so many fond memories and associations with her, we felt that it was a really good connection to have her as our very first person as part of this tribute campaign.

RM: Brian, how do you feel about Helmi being associated with this?

BC: Every now and again I do talk to her. She would be absolutely thrilled to see that, to this day, we have a strong and vibrant library in our community. She and her mother would see this as a continuation of their life’s passion, work, and commitment. My children were emotional when first approach with the idea, but they’ve settled into seeing this as a continued wonderful tribute to somebody who tried to make her community the best community one could dream of. I’m very honored, Rob, as is our family, because it launches in the month that would have been both Helmi and her mother’s birthday.

RM: Michelle, what can you tell us about the endowment campaign itself? What’s the purpose of it? How you plan on using the money from this?

MP: We’re hoping to ensure the long-term sustainability of the library. We’ve reached 50 years. We hope to get to a hundred. We have partnered with the Banff-Canmore Community Foundation and any donations can be made online through their website. Information about the Helmi Bracco campaign is on the library website. It is a really exciting year for the library and we encourage everyone to stay up to date – sign up for a newsletter and follow us on our social media channels because there’s a lot of great stuff to come. Hopefully we’ll be opening up later this month; with all the COVID stuff that’s been happening it’ll be great to once again see people in person.

Filed under: Canmore, Canmore Public Library