LIC Library gets $6M pledge

History is being made at the Queens Library.
The Long Island City branch recently received a $6 million pledge towards its endowment - the largest donation ever for a library here in Queens.
The donation, which comes from the Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation (JET), will help create the Jeanne Elmezzi Adult Learning Center.
The JET foundation will also purchase materials for the new center including audiotapes, videotapes and computer software.
Judy Close, a spokesperson for the Queens Library, said that the center would get “tremendous usage” because of the large immigrant population in the borough as well as in the city.
At an adult learning center, people work in small groups with a tutor as well as computers to help learn basic educational materials. Currently, there are six other adult learning centers in Queens, located at the Central, Elmhurst, Flushing, Peninsula, Rochdale and Steinway branches.
Close explained that the center would “bring literacy skills to those who need this kind of help.”
Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi were the children of Italian immigrants and grew up in Astoria.
“[They] remember what [their] parents had to go through,” Close said. “They lived humbly for decades.”
Thomas Elmezzi, an Executive Vice President for the Pepsi-Cola Company, started the JET foundation in 1996. He and his wife Jeanne, who died within days of each other in October 2005, “left a nice legacy,” Close said.
Jose Rivera, Chairman and CEO of the foundation said that Jeanne Elmezzi was an avid reader, which is one of the reasons why board members of the foundation chose to donate to the library.
The new adult learning center will officially be dedicated on June 21, when the Long Island City library celebrates Family Fun Day.
In addition to the Jeanne Elmezzi Adult Learning Center, the foundation has given a second operating grant to the library, according to Rivera said. This grant, worth $375,000, will help purchase books and other materials for the library during the next five years.