For East Meadow's library, it takes a few clicks

As voters headed to the booths on Tuesday for the primary elections, the East Meadow Public Library carried on a campaign of its own. The library is seeking help from the community — in the form of mouse clicks.
   
In partnership with the Friends of the Hempstead Plains, EMPL is in the running for a $50,000 Pepsi Refresh grant that would help build two public “teaching gardens” — one at the library and the other at the Hempstead Plains site next to Nassau Community College.
   
The gardens would be unique from others at local libraries because they would also restore a lost section of the Hempstead Plains. Most of the plains were destroyed when communities like East Meadow were built up into the suburbs they are now.
   
“It’s one thing to just restore land, but another thing to teach people about it so the land won’t be destroyed again,” said Jude Schanzer, the library’s director of public relations.
   
The project, submitted by EMPL and the Friends of the Hempstead Plains, was ranked 173rd among about 1,000 applicants for the Pepsi grant as the Herald went to press on Tuesday. Online voting for the grant ends on Sept. 30. The top 10 finishers will each win a $50,000 grant. The Pepsi Refresh program gives people a chance to win grant money for ideas and proposals they submit on how to improve their communities.
   
Thanks to the aggressiveness of Schanzer and her staff, the library continues to apply for and receive grants for programming despite decreased opportunities and more competition in the weakened economy. Online voting, however, is a new process for Schanzer.
   
She said it is unknown how many votes the library needs to win, but she noted that the community’s continued support of the facility gives its bid a shot at the prize. People can review and vote for the project at www.refresheverything.com/eastmeadowpubliclibrary. Voters who register on the website can cast up to 10 votes per day until Sept. 30.