We rely on the strength of our subscriber volunteer crew! If you’ve joined the Maine Tool Library, that includes you! It’s easy and fun to staff our library, you can sign up here. Don’t have the time to staff our open hours? Then contact us to help us with your unique skills after-hours. We’re looking for all types of help.
So together we all work to make this possible, but some folks do volunteer a bit more than others. If you email us, you’ll likely get an answer from one of the people listed on this page. If you would like to join us and get involved more, we’d love to have your help. This volunteer working group meets once a month from 6-8 on the first Wednesday of the month. Please feel free to join!
The current working group of volunteers includes:
Jon Chalfant is an industrial designer and fabricator who has designed and built everything from bicycle frames to kayaks to furniture to tension fabric sculptures. Jon’s current obsession is cooking with wood on rocket stoves and grills he has designed and built. His favorite tool is a draw knife for its simplicity and versatility.
Anna Sommo is a Maine native who lived on the west coast for 7 years after college, where she was a frequent patron of a couple tool libraries, especially one in Portland, Oregon. Anna loves to be outside, riding her bike, working in the garden, and hanging out with friends. Her favorite tool right now is a Fry Daddy, because doughnuts are delicious!
Jake recently returned home to Maine from New York City because… well… no explanation is really necessary, is it? After years of abstract “intellectual” work in his university, Jake came to be more and more convinced of the lasting intellectual challenges and pleasures of making/fixing/building things. And thinking globally, he’s downright terrified by the seas of waste which our big box economy and consumer culture both generate. Put those two ideas together and, duh… you have a tool library! His favorite tools are his two hands.
Elizabeth Tarasevich is a research and reference librarian who likes to organize things: people, books, ideas. She is active in the community garden scene in Portland, the city where she and her husband, Matt, chose to raise their children. Her favorite tool (she stole this from Pete Seeger) is a hammer.