While Bethel’s community fair and summer reading festival were underway on May 15, state lawmakers showed up to officially commend the Kuskokwim Consortium Library for its work organizing another event earlier this year – KuskoCon.
The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta’s first-ever comic convention brought three days of games, fandoms, comics, books, and art in February. The event caught the attention of Sen. Forrest Dunbar, who was the primary sponsor of a legislative citation presented to the library.
"I have a friend that runs Arctic Comic Con in Anchorage, and so I'm sort of aware of how important these kind of events can be," Dunbar said. "It goes beyond just comic books. It's really about building a sense of community and shared culture, and a lot of people are really enthusiastic about them."
Dunbar said that it was a coincidence that he and Rep. Genevieve Mina, who were in Bethel to also discuss rural healthcare, ended up coming the same day as Bethel’s summer fair and reading festival. Dunbar said that the drop-in was a treat.
"I'm really just impressed with the degree to which Bethel has been putting on these kind of events," Dunbar said.
The framed KuskoCon citation honors not only the Kuskokwim Consortium Library, but also the hosts and presenters – a “diverse line up of artists, video game designers, voice actors, writers, illustrators, and vendors.”
Dunbar and Mina presented the citation to the library’s core staff members – director Theresa Quiner, youth services coordinator Mikayla Miller, and circulation clerk Thomas Daniel. Quiner said that the three have played off of each other’s strengths over the past six years to organize events that expand the library’s reach.
"I think that one of the payoffs for both KuskoCon and the fair was that they drew in a lot of people that we don't necessarily see at library programs all of the time," Quiner said. "I think we reached a much wider audience, and an audience of people that are very, very passionate about the topics that we were covering at KuskoCon."
Quiner said that plans are in the works for the second annual KuskoCon to be held in the winter of 2027.
The legislative citation isn’t the first for the library. In 2022, the library was recognized as a finalist to receive the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, which it did the following year. Quiner herself has received two citations for her service as library director.
