A long-time supporter of the Wood County District Public Library has been presented with a legacy award.

Becky Bhaer moved to Naperville, Illinois, last year but was lured back to Bowling Green for the award presentation at the library’s Novel Night, held Thursday in the Veterans Building at City Park.

Library board President Ken Frisch said, “what we didn’t get to do in December was say thank you for all that you’ve done at the library.”

Board Director Michael Penrod presented Bhaer with a Legacy of 1875 Award, which was created by the library’s board of trustees to honor the spirit of the many people who have sustained the library throughout the years.

The award is a clock set within a wooden book.

“This is something I would have never expected, don’t really feel deserving of. …” Bhaer said. “Thank you for the honor. I can never give back as much as I get, no matter what I do.”

In 1875, a group of men formed Bowling Green’s first lending library. When it closed in 1911, the Shakespeare Round Table revitalized public library services in the community, Frisch said.

Bhaer has been a Friend of the library since at least 1989, when the minutes noted she joined the Friends’ board. As president in 1990, she spearheaded the first-ever charity auction, raising $30,000 for sliding automatic doors.

Thirty years ago, she was a founding member of the library’s foundation board and continued to serve on that board until 2007.

She volunteered her time with the library’s first operating levy in 2010 and again in its renewals in 2014 and 2020.

“She said, in 2026, you’re on your own,” Frisch said.

Penrod said the board doesn’t present the 1875 award every year; the last recipient were the volunteer librarians at the Wood County Jail in 2022.

“We wait for the right opportunity to present itself,” he said.

Bhaer joined the library’s board of trustees in 2013 and served as vice president from 2015-2023.

“Everything I did for this library came back to me many, many times over,” she said. “This is truly a labor of love. … I’m so glad to be able to come back here and I’m so glad for the generosity and the support you all have given this library for so many years.

“I just ask for one this. Please continue supporting this wonderful library and all that it does to enhance the community,” she said.