Doings at the Depot!
The public is invited to attend an Open House and social hour, with refreshments provided, hosted by the Friends of the West River Trail (FWRT), to be held on Tuesday, February 12, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM, in the South Londonderry Depot on Route 100.
At the Open House, visitors will be updated on the current projects involving both the West River Trail (South Londonderry to Brattleboro when completed) and the Depot itself. Recent significant advances in trail development in the Brattleboro area by the Southern Section of the Friends will be recognized.
During the social hour, the latest prize of memorabilia at the Depot will be formally introduced: a locomotive bell generously donated by William and Agnes Peele. It is believed that the bell came from one of the last regularly operated steam locomotives on the Santa Fe Railroad.
Tim Lawrence will also be on hand to present a narrated video depicting his recent experience hiking on a rail trail, one of a series he is producing, and will also, as a rail historian, update us on the status of his “Forgotten Railroads” project. Timothy W. Lawrence is Founder and Videographer, I.M.R. Films, created in 2003. Since that time, he has worked on numerous projects from online advertising for Coca-Cola and Comcast to corporate videos for companies such as Skyhorse Publishing, Living WRAP and more. He resides locally, in Windham, VT.
The Open House will be preceded at 5:30 PM by a short business meeting of the FWRT Board, which visitors are welcome to attend if they choose.
Please plan to join your friends and the Friends of the West River Trail for an enjoyable and informative evening.
Vermont Poet Laureate, Sydney Lea
Vermont's Poet Laureate, Sydney Lea, cancelled the Tuesday, February 19th reading as he was not feeling well. This event will be rescheduled for May.
Folk music artists sponsored by the Library!
The South Londonderry Free Library is pleased to have renowned folk artists, Jackie Davidson and Gary Brandt perform their music on Saturday, September 8 at 10:30 am. This performance of classic and original folk songs will take place at the Londonderry Town Assembly Room, just up the hill from the library in South Londonderry.
Jackie Davidson started her musical career at age 15 as a church organist. She later moved to southern California and joined the Grammy Award winning group “The New Christy Minstrels” who appeared regularly on “The Andy Williams Show”. Jackie sang with many well-known entertainers such as Sammy Davis Jr., Tennessee Ernie Ford, Kate Smith and Carol Channing.
Gary Brandt is a popular folklorist, singer and songwriter from Michigan. His new songs for 2012 include “Singing the Good Old Songs Again”, Going to Tennessee and I Sang My Songs in California. Gary carries on the tradition of folk music with a 12 string guitar, a good song, a humorous story and a voice that reflects the rich tradition of American Folk Music.
This promises to be an entertaining, fun event and all are welcome to attend. For more information call Mary at the library at 824-3371.
The South Londonderry
Free Library would like to gratefully acknowledge the
generous bequest of Karl Pfister III.
Karl was always an enthusiastic supporter of the Library
and his presence and contagious laugh will be missed. He
was the embodiment of the word “Gentleman”.
Karl was a gentle man and a man of science and letters
as well.
Karl’s involvement with the South Londonderry Free
Libraries goes back many years when he and his wife Peg
served on the Board of Trustees. They are responsible for
organizing the Everett M. Vaile glass plates, that depicted
life in this area in the early 1900s, and they were strong
advocates of the importance of this modest, local library.
One of Karl’s passions was genealogical research
and along with Peter F. Littlefield and the Historical
Society published Genealogies of Early Weston, Vermont
1800-1900. Karl would often come to the library to request
books on inter-library loan to aid in this research.
The South Londonderry Free Library will use Karl’s
bequest to improve a place that he thought valuable and
dearly loved.
Any
student (or adult) who is computer savvy and who would
like to donate some community services hours to the library
please call us at 824-3371. We are looking for
someone who can maintain and keep in good working order
our public computers and printers. This would entail making
sure that the 5 computers have anti-virus protection and
that they are up-to-speed. Installing learning-software
on our children's computer would also be great. Any help
will be gratefully accepted!
The South Londonderry Free Library is looking for volunteers
who enjoy books and people and have a few hours a week to spare.
Being in a stimulating and friendly environment surrounded
by books and meeting new people are but a few of the benefits
of volunteering at the library.
We are currently looking for volunteers for Wednesday evenings
and Saturday mornings but there are other time slots available
on occasion. Primary responsibilities would be managing
the circulation desk – checking in and out books,
shelving books and reminding patrons about their overdues.
If anyone enjoys reading to children we could arrange a pre-school
storytime once a week. Other volunteer possibilities could
be filing, cataloguing books, arranging magazines or adding
newly-developed Vaile photographs, taken in the early 1900s
in Vermont, into photo albums.