The Fountain Hills Friends of the Library (FHFL) will add two new members to its board at its annual meeting Tuesday, Jan. 16.

Leslie Donaldson and Pattie Heaston were nominated for FHFL board membership.

FHFL members and the public are invited to attend the annual meeting which runs from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16, in the Library Conference Room next to the lobby entrance. The meeting will also serve as an outgoing ceremony for outgoing FHFL President Barb Esposito and an opportunity to vote for the incoming President Jim Hill.

Hill is a former school principal and has served on the FHFL board since January of last year.

Incoming board members

Pattie Heaston and her husband Joe moved to Fountain Hills in 1998 from St. Louis, Mo., where they resided for 13 years.

Heaston retired in 1999 from Trans World Airlines where for 31 years she served as a flight attendant. Heaston worked as a volunteer since 2014 at her local library bookstore in the back room and as co-manager since 2018.

“Working with people, books and our library volunteers has been a true gift for me, and I look forward to serving on the Friends of the Library Board representing our wonderful bookshop,” Heaston said.

Leslie Donaldson is the second FHFL board nominee who was an English major in college. She spent many hours in many libraries and as a mother, volunteered at her children’s school libraries.

Donaldson worked as a marketing and research director for the Phoenix Business Journal for 10 years. She retired in 2007.

“When my husband Charles and I moved to Fountain Hills from Scottsdale in 2012, I began looking for an opportunity to volunteer and had the good fortune of volunteering in the Friends of the Library’s ‘Greatest Little Book Store’ in the Fountain Hills Library,” Donaldson said who was invited to join as a secretary for the FHFL board.

“This is my dream ‘job’- working with other book-loving individuals to provide financial and cultural support to the Fountain Hills Library so it can continue its tradition of excellence,” Donaldson said.

With the funds generated by the FHFL Bookstore, FHFL sponsors and underwrites educational programs for children and adults, technology and furnishings upgrades, book club and reading programs and provides post-secondary education scholarships for local students.

A non-profit organization that supports and funds library programs beyond what is funded through Maricopa County, the FHFL resale bookshop and membership donations are what make their community-based activities possible.

The community is invited to attend the upcoming annual board meeting Tuesday, Jan. 16. For more information, visit fhfl.org.