The commemorative card celebrates the Blue Jackets’ 25th season as well as the organization's longstanding partnership with the Columbus Metropolitan Library Foundation. Dedicated to education through literacy and inspiring a lifelong love of learning, the Blue Jackets Foundation has supported the library system since 2008 through after-school and reading literacy programs.
“The Blue Jackets Foundation and the Blue Jackets are really proud to be commemorating our 25th season with the Columbus Metropolitan Library,” said Cathy Lyttle, board chair of the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation. “We've long supported the Columbus library. We believe in reading. We believe in literacy.”
The limited-edition card is another chapter in an ongoing collaboration between the Blue Jackets and the Columbus Metropolitan Library, which has included longstanding funding of the library's School Help Centers through the Blue Jackets Foundation.
With aligned missions, it was an easy decision to say yes to helping create CML’s first commemorative card, which features the team’s official 25th anniversary logo.
“The Blue Jackets have been such great supporters of the library's work,” Columbus Metropolitan Library CEO Lauren Hagan said. “Because of the Blue Jackets’ support of the community, of reading and of children, we thought this was a great opportunity to collaborate and celebrate the 25th anniversary.
“It's just a great celebration, and we want everyone to have a library card. If it's a way for somebody that might not otherwise have thought to get a library card, because they're a lover of the Blue Jackets, that they come to one of our locations and sign up, that is just a great way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Blue Jackets.”
Partnering with the library is just one example of the Blue Jackets Foundation’s passion and commitment to education through literacy. The Book Jackets reading program, presented by Ohio’s 529 Plan, CollegeAdvantage, incentivizes students in grades K-8 to spend more time reading with exciting prizes. In the last decade, more than 30,000 students have taken part in the program, building strong reading habits and a love of learning along the way.
Lyttle hopes that the commemorative library card initiative illustrates the strength of the Blue Jackets’ relationship with the Columbus Metropolitan Library and dedication to giving back to the Columbus community.
“The Blue Jackets Foundation has been around since the start of the team, even really before the team hit the ice,” Lyttle said. "We're very proud of the fact that we have put into the community more than $15 million in grants and helping our youth all across the community, and the library has been with us along the way for the majority of those years.”
Although Stinger might not be there, fans can visit the Main Library on Grant Street to receive their own special-edition Blue Jackets library card through Nov. 14 or while supplies last. While they’re there, they can also see one of the team’s official 25th anniversary commemorative puck statues.
