Today library volunteer Angelique Lee and I joined Susie martin at the Vermont Library Association's annual conference.  Susie was chosen as this year's award recipient for her 40 years of service to our own Roger Clark Memorial Library.


Here is her letter of nomination:

I am writing to nominate Susie Martin of Pittsfield’s Roger Clark Memorial Library for the 2011 Trustee of the Year Award.

In 1973 Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor came to Pittsfield to dedicate the Roger Clark Memorial Library. “Above all you have created here and we dedicate here this building to the hopes and ambitions of thousands of people as yet unborn, who will find here a sense of pride and togetherness, a source for practical knowledge or poetic inspiration, as their choice may be, and a place to complement the inspiration given them to grow in body, heart and mind among these beautiful hills as Vermonters have for 200 years.”

In 1973 Susie Martin was one of the 5 members of that library board.  This year, almost 40 years later, she has bravely decided to pass the library on to a new group of volunteers.  During that time Susie has done everything to make our cherished all volunteer library run; from making certain important library organizational standards were upheld and guiding new volunteers, to helping young patrons write their own names on their cards.  I expect we have only an inkling of the work she has done.   We would love to see  Susie rewarded for her time and dedication to the library, without her guidance and and extraordinary  commitment the Library would not be here today.

Sincerely,
Marion AbramsTrustee Chair
Roger Clark Memorial Library

We have several books to help you out.  
*The Vermont Gardeners's Companion
*The Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening
*The Heirloom Gardener
*The Complete Book of Gardening
*Gardener's Questions Answered

How about chickens?
*The Joy of Keeping Chickens

We have series for kids of all ages.
*Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game
*Harry Potter
*Marcy Watson (the pig who loves toast with a great deal of butter)
*Canterwood Crest
*Magic Tree House
*Ivy & Bean (book #7 just arrived)
*Secrets of Droon

Recently added to our shelves:*The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
*Message in a Bottle - Nicholas Sparks
*Band of Brothers - Stephen Ambrose
*A Son of the Circus - John Irving

We had a small but eager turn out at our first and only library game night of the season.  There was a "friendly" game of scrabble joined by 4 of the library trustees, along with games of checkers, Candy Land, Uno, Camp and Connect 4.  As you know, we are an all volunteer community run library, and we are all learning as we go along.  The lessons from our game night?  First is that while 4:00 feels like evening in the winter, on a gorgeous sunny spring day, it feels like to early to come inside.  Fortunately Ray Rice was willing to run the kids at the playground for a half hour or so, and being Vermont kids, they were happy to climb the snowbanks to get to the swings and slide.  The second lesson is that game night will be a lot more cozy next time, next time we'll hold it in our beloved library, not the basement of the town hall.  The third lesson, for me personally, is that I should play Scrabble more often.  And finally, lesson four, we just keep finding more reasons to love our library and our little playground out back.

So, if you made it inside in spite of spring sunshine, thanks for making game night happen, and if you didn't, stay tuned, we'll be planning a summer picnick or two you won't want to miss.  Here are a couple of snapshots.

2010 - Looking Back and Looking Forward

In 1973 Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor came to Pittsfield to dedicate the Roger Clark Memorial Library. “Above all you have created here and we dedicate here this building to the hopes and ambitions of thousands of people as yet unborn, who will find here a sense of pride and togetherness, a source for practical knowledge or poetic inspiration, as their choice may be, and a place to complement the inspiration given them to grow in body, heart and mind among these beautiful hills as Vermonters have for 200 years.”

In 1973 Susie Martin was one of the 5 members of the library board.  This year, almost 40 years later, she has bravely decided to pass the library on to a new group of volunteers.  During that time Susie has done everything to make our cherished all volunteer library run; from making certain important library organizational standards were upheld and guiding new volunteers, to helping young patrons write their own names on their cards.  I expect we have only an inkling of the work she has done.  If you see Susie, please thank her for her time and dedication to the library, without her guidance and commitment the Library would not be here today.

As we strive to live up to our library’s history, we are proud of our accomplishments in 2010.  Here are just a few:

• 5 week Fall After-school program series including a VINS raptor demo, art, cooking, dance and survival skills.
• Musical Saturdays with James Mee, a Teen Night, and a Ginger Bread House decorating party attended by 50 children.
• Pittsfield photo contest (with 170 ballots cast), and the creation and sales of of the beautiful Pittsfield Calendar.
• “Walk In” movie night, an outside screening of “Inkheart” complete with popcorn machine.
• Third annual Eliteam family fitness program (inspiring over 70 kids and adults).
• Third annual book sale at the Pittsfield Bazaar.
• Third annual community and fund raising dinner, this year at the Clear River Tavern.
• New free books to over 90 trick-or-treating children on Halloween
• The now traditional Night Before the Night Before Christmas.
• Ongoing free distribution of weeded books at the Pitt Stop.
• Hundreds of new books added to the shelves.

And now to the future.  Thanks to the thoughtful consideration of the select board, the building committee and our town as a whole, a year from now we expect to be moving into a new space.  The Pittsfield town offices will take over our space, and we will have a renovated room upstairs to continue our 110 year tradition. With your help we will continue to evolve as a library and community center.  Our goal is to serve the needs of our entire community, please stop in soon.  We are an all volunteer municipal library, without you none of this would be possible.  So thank you.

Nine brave thespians celebrated a Theatre Arts - Create Your Own Play workshop for three sessions at Pittsfield Library recently under the direction of Saskia Hagen Groom. As part of the workshop they create and wrote their own play, designed costumes, props and set and cast the actors.

The group named itself "The Pittsfield Thespians" and performed the following four original written One Act plays at the end of the third session for family & friends:

The Life of a Dog written by Maggie Rice and Sam Groom
Narrator - Alyana Hunt
Mila, the Hamster - Maggie Rice
Samuel, the Wiener Dog - Sam Groom

Spy Animals written by Alyana Hunt and Wilbur Abrams
Libby - Alyana Hunt
Herman - Wilbur Abrams
Tootsie Roll Robot - Peter Sell

The Underwater Mystery written by Maria Sell, Abigail Masillo and Devin Ziegler
Miranda - Maria Sell
Otto - Abigail Masillo
Monster - Devin Ziegler
Charley - Loren Mayer
Carly - Maggie Rice 

Calvin & Hobbs and The Search for Treasure written by Jackson Ziegler and Peter Sell
Hobbs - Jackson Ziegler
Calvin - Peter Sell
Mom - Loren Mayer
Dad - Sam Groom
Sea Monster - Devin Ziegler 

Special thanks to Marion Abrams for the opportunity to have the workshop and many thanks to Loren Mayer for her role as Assistant, Mary Sell for her help with Set Design/Make Up, and Kelly Ziegler for her help as Technical Crew. 


~Saskia Hagen Groom

This is why we love volunteering at our library.  


Halloween night our brave volunteer Sharon Mayer persevered in spite of grievous injury (an arrow through the head, see photo to the left.)  She handed out new free books to keep to close to 100 children.


The library also became a resting place for weary legs, a meeting place for friends, and a warming place for cold fingers and toes.  In addition to free books we provided hot cider to the undead, sharks, fairies, devils and gas pumps.


Please continue to support our 100% volunteer library and our efforts at building community and literacy.  We are selling calendars created with photos from our Pittsfield photo contest.  All photos entered are represented in the calendar.  The purchase deadline is November 15th.  Visit the order page here, or stop in at the library to see the sample and place your order.  Below are  a few photos, we'll have more soon.