ENFIELD — Evelyn Crate didn’t have a lot of time for reading when she was raising her eight children and helping to run the family’s businesses with her husband, Donald.
“As she got older and we all left the nest, she started reading a lot more,” said Dolores Struckhoff, one of the Crates’ children. “We convinced her to get a library card because she was buying a lot of books.”
That library card proved handy when Crate broke her ankle and could not visit the Enfield Public Library to take out books. Crate’s daughter Dianne Nelson went to the library for her, putting together a bag of reading material that Crate could read during her recovery.
After Crate died in September 2017 at age 93, her family was thinking about different ways to honor her. Remembering how much joy Crate got from the library, the family founded the Evelyn J. Crate Library Fund, with the goal of providing funding for programs for older adults.
The fund’s first program is an at-home delivery service where homebound senior citizens or older adults living in Enfield can request books or other reading materials that will then be delivered by volunteers. Participants must have a library card, which they can get for free. They can make requests by calling the library or by printing out a brochure from the library’s website to send in to the library.
“She liked boooks with happy endings,” Struckhoff said. Evelyn Crate’s favorite genres were romance and historical fiction. One of her favorite authors was Danielle Steel. “The last couple of years, she could go through at least four books a week.”
The program is in its beginning stages. Late last month, the first delivery was made by Enfield Police Officer Michael Crate, Evelyn Crate’s grandson. The fund’s organizers, which include members of the Library Board of Trustees, have come up with a pamphlet that was delivered to Meals on Wheels recipients in Enfield through the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council.
Those who sign up will receive deliveries in a tote bag with a logo that includes the phrase “Share the Joy of Reading.”
While Crate had other hobbies such as fiber crafts and certain TV shows she liked to watch — while still working for Don Crate & Sons Trucking and Excavating — most of her downtime was spent reading. After Donald Crate died in 2013, Evelyn Crate spent more time by herself, Struckhoff recalled, and reading “took her to places she had never been,” Struckhoff said. It’s something the Crate family hopes to provide to other senior citizens.
Editor’s note: For more information on the Evelyn J. Crate Library Fund or to volunteer, call 603-632-7145 or visit enfield.nh.us/enfield-public-library. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com.
