|
Openshelves
March 2007 The Vermont Arts Council has awarded the Reading library a Cultural Facilities grant of $20,000 to support the installation of an accessibility lift. I'd like to thank Robert Allen, Lisa Kaija, Marion Brody, and Wayne Shontz for their help during the grant-writing process. You have responded to the trustees' solicitation letter with more than $5,500. Thank you. Your generosity has touched us deeply. Every dollar will go toward the accessibility project, which is now more than 85% funded. We remain hopeful that we can build this year. We will continue to seek out grant opportunities, and there are more fundraising activities planned. Once the lift is installed, we can focus all our energies on serving you directly with events, materials, information, and technology. The library building itself will be offered up as a commons area, where conversation is welcomed, loitering is encouraged, food and drink are allowed, and the checking out of books is optional. The Reading Library Friends group is now ten members strong, and a group of volunteers along with their children are spending part of their Tuesday mornings at the library. We've been visiting, brainstorming, drinking tea, and working. Two hundred new books have been accessioned the last few weeks. If you're interested in joining us, drop in. More than two dozen recipes have been submitted for our community cookbook, but we'd love to have more entries. We're looking for main dishes, sides, desserts, etc. You can submit 1-3 recipes, one or more of your own and one or more that have been passed down from a relative. We'd like to include photos and anecdotes concerning the cook or the dish. Recipes, stories, and photos can be mailed, emailed, or brought to the library. Photos will be scanned and the originals returned. The library's email address is reading.public.library@comcast.net. The phone number is 484-5588. Amity Aldridge, a senior college student majoring in library science, has been interning at our library. She is creating a Reading Public Library Website. We are putting the finishing touches to it and hope to have it up and running in a couple of weeks. It seems I am a charter member of the Reading Social Club (Men's Division). This super-secret society has met twice at the 1815 House for cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and intrigue. I've not quite got the handshake and the hat fits funny, but these are mere quibbles. Beginning in 1948 and continuing into the 1960s, Sherm Howe, Sr., who lived in the stone house just below Keeper's, edited a twice-monthly local newspaper called the Reading Review. The following is a list of town organizations that are mentioned during those years. Friendly Circle, Pinnacle Homemakers of Reading, Mother's Club, Home Demonstration Club, Ascutney View Garden Club, Reading Christian Union, Young People's Fellowship Group, Felchville Odd Fellows Lodge #62, Happy Thought Rebekah Lodge #45, Valley Grange #317, Past Noble Grands Association, Reading Community Club, South Reading Community Club, Reading Players (a theatrical group), Men's Choral Club, Reading Square Dance Group, Reading Marching Band, Rolling Hills 4-H Club (Felchville), Green Mountain 4-H Club (South Reading), Future Homemakers 4-H Club (Village and Town-Line groups), P.T.A. (Felchville), Stone School Parent's Club (South Reading), Reading Cub Scout Pack #100, Reading Boy Scout Troop #36, Explorer Scout Troop #36 (boys 14 years old and up), Reading Health Council, Harmony Association (Hammondsville), Old Time Ball Committee, Memorial Day Committee, Reading Odd Fellows Bowling Team, Reading Legion Bowling Team, Reading Bowling Club (1 men's team and 2 women's teams, along with a couples' team), Reading Wildcats Junior Baseball Club, Softball Club (adults and juniors), Youth Group Volleyball Team, Felchville Cemetery Association, Women's Auxiliary of the Reading Fire Department, Reading Historical Society, Reading Junior Historical Society. Not too shabby for a town whose population in 1957 was 470 people.
Cordially,
|