Photo by Latoya Shelton

Chocolate Extravaganza - The Friends of the Library prepares boxes full of homemade chocolates, which sold for $5 each.

   Ancient South American cultures first discovered chocolate as being a sweet ingredient for drinks. Two-thousand years later, the Friends of the Library in Monticello is cultivating it as a main ingredient for their annual Valentines Day Chocolate Extravaganza.

   Last year FOTL raised over $5,000 and endowed the Monticello Branch Library of the Southeast Arkansas Regional Library system with new rugs, internet access, funding for the summer reading program and many other items not included in the normal budget.

   "This is all homemade by the best candy-makers in Arkansas,” said Jane Fuller, the president of the FOTL.

   For $5, customers purchased a ticket for one box filled with 15 different kinds of chocolate and picked them up on Valentine’s Day. The success of this fundraiser relied heavily on tickets sales. Virginia Grizzell, a top ticket seller, sold 500 tickets last year, compared to 440 this year.

   "It's so fun, because I go places I would never go normally,” Grizzell said.

   Every year volunteers from all over the community come together to compose boxes, sell tickets and make over 12,000 pieces of candy. Members of the Extension Homemakers Club of Monticello contributed by making desserts like million-dollar fudge and pink chocolate roses.

Photo by Latoya Shelton

Homemade - A member of Friends of the Library holds her homemade chocolates up for display before they are packaged.

   The fund raiser takes a lot of effort, and the volunteers joked about it being hard labor. Mardelle Henley has been volunteering at the Chocolate Extravaganza for 11 years.

   "These chocolates take four hours to box, and we have 800 boxes this year. We get zero dollars, no overtime and one bathroom break,” Henley said.

   Dumas invited University of Arkansas-Monticello students to visit the library and take advantage of the updates made by FOTL. The Monticello Branch offers faxing, copying and printing services as will as regular circulation.

   "I have always been amazed that more students from UAM don't come in and check out our video collection, because they are free," Dumas said.

   The library also sells books to raise funds through the Perpetual Book Sale. Hardback books sell for 50 cents, and paperback books sell for a quarter.