Teen Program gets a $500 boost from Rotary

The Rotary Club of Ossipee Valley has disbanded after 80+ years of service to the community, but before they turned out the lights and locked the doors, they dispersed the remainder of the monies that had accumulated from their numerous fundraisers over the years. The Rotary Club granted the Freedom Public Library $500 in support of Rotary International's "Literacy in Action" program. I asked for this money to expand and improve the teen program. Thank you for all you've done for the community, Ossipee Rotary! We will miss you!

Cats love...

Louie got in this box as soon as we set it down. He still likes his cozy cat bed best of all, but put a box or a bag on the floor and you bet he'll check it out.

Zoe visits the library

Audrey and Elizabeth got a new kitty for Christmas and named her Zoe. She's about a year old and was adopted from the Conway Area Humane Society. Since we've met all the other Davis cats, it wasn't long before Zoe paid a visit to the library. Sorry it took me so long to put the pictures up, girls, and Zoe - come visit again!

Maggie makes a Christmas card

Santa faces made out of hand prints... turned out cute! Here's Maggie in the midst of making hers at storytime recently.

Cozy Kitty

Louie loves his new cat bed.

Storytime Buds

Carter and Bridger enjoy preschool storytime on Wednesday mornings.

Our Favorite Thespian

We got out the Fairy Tale Theatre that's been languishing in the Library Store for a couple of years, and Brianna put on a play - a new version of Little Red Riding Hood in which the wolf just decides to dress up in Grandma's pajamas and then Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma scare the wolf away.

Great Day for A Walk to the Library

The 2nd graders came to the library today to select books and to hear some stories read by Mrs. Rhymer. She read Ira Sleeps Over, one of the new books from the Children's Literacy Foundation and If You Find A Rock, a beautiful book about all different kinds of rocks you might found outside. Here's the whole group together with their teacher Mrs. Pohl as well as a picture of April, Lucas and Catherine reading I Don't Like Gloria outloud together. What fun! I'm looking forward to next month's visit from the 2nd graders already. (As always, click pictures to see them full size!)

Post-storytime Family Portrait

Karen Hopkins poses with her daughter Bethany and two of her grandchildren, Spencer & his cousin Stella.

Thank You!

A Windfall of Books!

The Freedom Public Library received a sponsorship from the Children's Literacy Foundation. We now have 100 new children's books! Here I am with Duncan McDougall, the Director of CLiF, showing off a few of our new aquisitions. Check out the website http://www.freedompubliclibrary.org/ for pictures from the presentation Duncan gave at the Freedom Elementary School. Check out the CLiF website - it's a wonderful organization and well worth supporting.

So? DO you care?

I didn't notice the t-shirt this little girl was wearing when I snapped her picture with our NH Humanities Council lecturer, Leonardo DaVinci (aka Paul Manning). She came last night with her great-grandparents all the way from Gorham, ME and though I didn't catch her name she seemed like a very special third grader. We were happy to have over 50 people attend last night's standing-room-only performance of "Leonardo DaVinci: 1452-1519" and even happier that everyone loved it - we got a great deal of positive feedback. Many thanks to the Friends of the Library and the NH Humanities Council for sponsoring this program and especially Ellen Many, Lee Fritz and Sharon Meyer who did all the work. Ellen did a bang-up job of publicity and people came from all over to experience Leonardo DaVinci in person! Oh, and thanks Paul - you were a hit, bravo!
Update: The little girl is named Phoebe! Hi Phoebe!

Love at First Sight

Daniell Spear and his wonderful new dog, Benjamin, came to visit me at the library today. He was lucky to find Ben, a friendly, loving full-bred Golden Retriever, at the Upper Valley Humane Society in Enfield, NH. After a grueling 2 1/2 interview and a return trip with his wife, the shelter agreed to let the Spears adopt Ben. What a great dog! I think it's a match made in heaven.

Who is that blonde bombshell?

Why, it's Elizabeth Acton, visiting the library on Halloween!

Drive in Library?

Jackson let Jack drive with him to visit the library in his cool electric car.

Pumpkins

The storytime kids made pumpkins out of toilet paper rolls and orange tissue paper. Here they are with their creations...

A Flock of Sheep

Elizabeth had some little lambs, little lambs, little lambs!
Preschoolers Matthew, Carter, Spencer, Olivia and Bridger made sheep masks this week!

I am so far behind on this blog! I have so many good pictures to share with you, I'm just going to start RIGHT NOW and post some. Here are some scenes from this year's Freedom Public Library "Paws to Read" parade entry for Freedom Old Home Week. Judy and I dressed up as cats along with four children who carried signs (art work by Bill Stoops and made into signs by Heidi Glavin -- thank you guys!!). We did have one dog, thanks to Hilary who brought her dog Ginger. On my way back from registering for the parade, I stepped my foot directly into a fresh warm pile of dog poo. Fortunately I was barefooted and fortunately it didn't get all between my toes. Once I got the poo all off my foot, I came closer to the rest of my group (who were all in hysterics because of the poo) and I stepped right where Ginger had just peed! Ah dogs... Gotta love 'em.

Judy is the coolest! Look at her on her new red scooter!

We have a raffle winner!

Congratulations to Arlene Knight whose name was drawn to win an original watercolor by long-time Freedom resident Elizabeth Acton. The painting is of Stuart's Barn (we are not exactly sure where this barn is...somewhere up near Cragged Mountain Farm). Of course, Arlene was thrilled to have won the painting. The raffle earned (after framing costs) $253 for the Friends of the Library. Thanks to all who bought tickets and especially to Elizabeth Acton for donating her art.

UDATE: Emily Phillips, Elizabeth Acton's daughter, wrote me with information on Stuart's Barn. Thanks, Emily!

Stuart's Barn is John Stuart home near Rob and Karen Hatch's. If you are at Cragged Mt. Farm (Cold Brook Road) you follow that towards Eaton. After the Ben Road turns off, the Stuart homestead is the next house (and then you come to Four Corners. 43.860633,-71.033651 go to Yahoo Maps and paste these coordinates into the location and you will find the barn!