At the Library

By Debby Farmer

This summer the Blaine Library continued to prove to be an integral part of the community. Local residents found a cool and relaxing place to peruse their favorite newspapers or magazines. Area teens discovered the outside courtyard table to be an ideal place for playing card games. Kids of all ages staged impromptu puppet shows with the visiting puppet theater in the children’s area.

The recently doubled internet stations played host to a continual stream of users throughout the last few months. Travelers from all parts of the globe appreciated the opportunity to access email and manage their personal accounts online. Many needing additional documentation at the border were able to download such items without further delay. Many young people made the library a regular daily stop to play a session of their favorite internet games.

It wouldn’t have been summer at the library without the annual summer reading program. This year over 300 children participated in “Dragons, Dreams and Daring Deeds,” reading an astonishing 3,460 books! About 50 teens read and reviewed another 246 books in their own program, “Joust Read.” Thank you to all who donated prizes, including Birch Bay Waterslides and Miniature World Family Fun Center.

The library system’s youth services department has just distributed the after school program calendar, and the first of these monthly events began Wednesday, September 7, at 3:15. The popular “Toddler Time” begins Tuesday, September 20, at 10:30 a.m. and runs weekly through December 13.

The Friends of the Library will again be hosting various events in the library’s large meeting room. Look forward to evenings with a Holocaust survivor, an astronomy professor and recent travelers to Nepal. New this fall will be a kids’ craft fair, organized by Michele Morales, and Clare Nurre is gearing up for another major book sale. Finally, please join new member, John Chadwick and others, in a special observance of September 11, this Saturday from 10 – 6, and Sunday, 12 – 4. Visitors will be given an opportunity to reflect on the questions, “What have we learned from our nation’s response?” and “How can we best honor the positive aspect of those who were casualties?” The event will be nonpolitical, instead focusing on the positive reasons for remembering such a time as this in our nation’s history.