Bellingham Business Association Funds Southwick Zoo Library Pass
Bernadette Rivard, Bellingham Public Library Director, Left, and Kerry Pickering, Bellingham Business Association President, presenting a $1,000 Southwick Zoo pass donation!
By J.D. O’Gara
Patrons of the Bellingham Public Library can thank the Bellingham Business Association (BBA) for a chance to visit the popular Southwick Zoo on a budget. At the January 11th BBA monthly meeting, held last month at Sol de Mexico on Mechanic Street in Bellingham, the BBA presented the Library with a check for $1,000 to cover the cost of the Southwick Zoo pass.
“The Southwick Zoo pass is the most expensive passes the library subscribes to,” says Berna dette Rivard, Director of the Bellingham Public Library, who accepted the donation from BBA President Kerry Pickering. “Having this one sponsored takes a huge burden off our Friends of the Lib for their fundraising. It makes it so we know we can provide this most popular pass. Last year, almost 150 people used the pass. It’s a really popular one.”
The Bellingham Public Library offers a number of other passes to patrons as well, including parking at Massachusetts State Parks, the New England Aquarium, the Botanical Gardens at Tower Hill, the EcoTarium in Worcester, Zoo New England, Museum of Science and the Hall at Patriot Place, to name a few.
Passes can be reserved in advance only by Bellingham residents and members of the Friends of the Library, with some passes limited to Bellingham residents only. For Bellingham residents, reservations may be made online, in person or by phone (provided their library cards have no fines over $10), and residents of other towns who are members of the Friends of the Library must call or visit in person to reserve passes. Non-residents who are not members of the Friends of the Bellingham Library may borrow passes on the day they wish to visit, provided the desired pass is available. To learn more about using the museum passes, visit https://www.bellinghamma.org/library/services/pages/museum-passes.
“We have a dozen or so other passes, and there are other BBA members who have sponsored some of them. That information is on our website,” says Rivard, adding, “It makes it that we can provide something that might have to be curtailed if we didn’t have the funds from the sponsors.”
If you or your company would like to sponsor a pass for one year, please contact Bernadette Rivard, Library Director at [email protected], or (508) 657-2776.
For more information about the Bellingham Business Association, email [email protected], visit @BellinghamBusinessAssociation on Facebook, or visit
