By Lisa Hustad
The OACB Project suffered a loss when Joan Gefke died. She was one of the founders of the Oregon Area Historical Society and the Historic Preservation Commission. She was on the Library Centennial Committee in 2008 and was one of the people who wanted the Library Centennial Booklet to go beyond the library-history and to include the Oregon area.
Joan had talked to me about the untapped potential that the library had to connect people to their roots and community by linking the people living here to the rich cultural, historic, and land resources surrounding us. She and Joan Whethal had both talked about the library one day having a research room that would support genealogical inquiry. She was one of the people who saw the library at the center of the community reaching out beyond its four walls using its tremendous capacity to connect the community together.
Joan Gefke and Rita Plummer are two women who changed my life and inspired me to see community service (volunteer work) as an expected norm that gives back more than it takes.
