'Read, White & Blue' Dinner, Fireworks Cruise to Benefit Grosse Pointe Public Library

An evening cruise on the Ovation Yacht tonight aims to raise funds for the struggling system, which is facing serious financial hardship and planning to seek a millage increase from voters in November to help pay the bills. 

The cruise, named Read, White and Blue, is scheduled to set sail at 9 p.m. from the Jefferson Beach Marina. It will cruise Lake St. Clair past the Grosse Pointes and anchor off Veterans Memorial Park to watch the fireworks display.

A raffle of several donated items is part of the fundraising effort. Individual tickets are $5 or five tickets are $20. The winners of the raffle will be chosen Friday but they do not need to be present to win. The items up for raffle include: 

• a four course gourmet dinner for eight people with expert wine pairings prepared and served in your home
• a one-of-a-kind diamond and gold pendant from
• a group tour of The Parade Company warehouse
• naming rights for a character in Gloria Whalen's next book
• dinner for four at

The funds raised through Friday's dinner cruise are intended to help support the services and programming offered by the libraries whereas the millage increase the system plans to seek in November will help cover from building the Ewald and Woods branches. 

Grosse Pointe Library --sometimes repeatedly--before city councils of all of the Pointes to introduce and explain the millage increase request during the last few months. 

If approved, the library board intends to adjust it annually to make sure the funds raised will simply pay the debt service owed and nothing more, the trustees have said. 

The Grosse Pointe Library Foundation co-chairs, Laurie and Shail Arora and Sven and Mary Beth Gierlinger, hope Friday's cruise will remind residents of the importance of the library system and allow them to have a fun time while helping out the libraries. 

Tickets for the cruise were $125 and sales closed for it June 10 but raffle tickets are still available for purchase at each of the three library branches.