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Vershire Community
Library Recent Events
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Library Turns Into a Tropical Rainforest
At the beginning of February, the library magically transformed into a tropical rainforest.
From the minute you pass through the simulated waterfall at
the library entrance everything is different. At the
monthly Children's Activity on February 4, kids were able to
see the parrot at the top of his tree right in the middle of
the forest, the zip line that stuffed animals could take to
ride across the forest canopy, and they were enchanted by
the restful sounds of the rainforest. Everywhere they
looked there were lizards, snakes, and other tropical
creatures. There were all sorts of books available
about rainforest creatures, and a great floor size jigsaw
puzzle show all the strata of the the rainforest. The
rainforest will be in place through February.
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December 10
A Visit From Santa
Once again, as is his custom, on the second
Saturday in December Santa Claus made his annual visit to the
Vershire Community Library. There was a large turnout of
youngsters, 21 of them plus parents, eagerly awaiting his arrival.
After Santa read a Christmas story to the children, they all had a
chance to make their Christmas requests. Each child received a
new book from the library. Then Library Lynn served muffins to
everybody to cap off a perfect morning.
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Civil War Historian Howard Coffin Talks to
Packed House
 On
November 18, local author and Civil War historian Howard
Coffin, from Montpelier, spoke to an audience of almost 80
people, including most of the student body of The Mountain
School, at the Town Center.
From Cedar Creek to Gettysburg, Vermonters were central to
the Union Cause and Mr. Coffin related several stories on the
the effect of Vermonters on the outcome of the Civil War and
the effect of the War on Vermonters and Vermont.
He concluded his talk with an inspiring recitation of
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given on November 19, 1863.
It was an informative and inspiring evening.
This was a Vermont Humanities Council event
hosted by the Vershire Community Library, The
Vershire Historical Society, and the Mountain
School.
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A Wooden Village and Corn Husk Dolls
The November Children's Activity on November 5 was two
activities in one! First the kids got to make their
own village with lots of houses, a river, and cars to drive
on the roads. The roads and river were laid out on a
painted sheet of plywood, and the folks at Timberhomes, LLC,
produced about a dozen wooden scale buildings to place all
over the village. Eleven kids enjoyed building the
village, putting up fences and laying ownership claims on
different buildings and plots. Then everyone moved
into the cafe and made corn husk dolls. Then snacks of
muffins and apples, playing outside in the gorgeous November
weather, back inside to work on the village, and then home.
A great morning for all!
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Library Invaded by Goblins
The library, as usual, was open for trick-or-treaters to
visit on Halloween evening. In addition to treats for
visiting goblins at the Library, there was the Halloween
Adventure Trail, planned, developed and staffed by the
Vershire 4-H club. Treats included popcorn, pretzels,
apples, cookies, cupcakes and pizza. Nobody left
hungry!
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 Local Author -
Dierdre Dennis
As an added attraction during the library's
annual fall book sale on
October 8, Dierdre Dennis read from her book, Walking
into Spring or Bowling My Way Home. Dierdre wrote
the book based on journals she kept during a month-long hike
on the Appalachian Trail. It was a vicarious thrill to hear
about her experiences of hiking at night and testing her
skills on the trail.
It was a great addition to all the day's activities,
including the Fall Festival.
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Local Author - Lisa
Paulson -
An Unconventional Journey
Part time Vershire resident Lisa Paulson visited the library
Saturday afternoon, October 1, to read from and discuss her
most recent book, An Unconventional Journey - The Story
of High Wind, from Vision to Community to Eco-Neighborhood
with a group of about a dozen people.
High Wind began as an ecological community in rural
Wisconsin in 1980. Dedicated to living in balance with
nature, its residents focused on experimenting and
demonstrating technologies of renewable energy, as well as
living their values and sharing their ideas and discoveries
with the public. Lisa co-founded of this "intentional"
community with her husband Belden.
She gave a great overview of how a visit to Findhorn, in
Scotland, propelled her towards the founding of High Wind
and her intense interest in building sustainable cultures.
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Making Masks
At the October Saturday morning children's activity, Peg
Wright had a half dozen children getting ready for the
Halloween season by making very creative masks.
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Painting with Missy
On September 3, Missy Smith guided little artists in painting still
life pictures of flowers with water colors. Several books about
artists were showcased and read.
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Jiggety Jog
Susan Reit de Salas came to the Library on August 3, to present Jiggety Jog,
a program of children's songs from around the world. There was
at least a dozen kids along with parents, grandparents, and
babysitters. Everyone had a wonderful time.
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 Children's Activity -
Treasures From Trash
May 7 was Greenup Day in Vermont and with the news that the library
activity for that day would be creating treasures from
trash, twelve children showed up to join Andrea Herrington and Lynn Roy.
Their creative efforts produced all sorts of fun crafts. After
the crafting, and a snack of muffins, everyone enjoyed selecting one
or more of the library's great collection of books, and reading - or
being read to.
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Fun
With LEGO
Sixteen children, and assorted parents and grandparents, arrived at
the Library on Saturday morning, April 9, to have fun with
LEGO. Local prize winning LEGO whiz, Wylie Seace, brought
two huge bins full of LEGO parts and everyone was able to give full
rein to their imaginations. Along with Wylie, LEGO prizewinner
from California, Halle Burke was there to give advice. After
the creative work was done, the finished projects were brought
outside for exhibition.
There are many more pictures of the projects and their builders, at
VerShare's
Facebook page.
May thanks to Wylie and Halle, and to Librarian Lynn Roy for
organizing this fun event.
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 Marion
Jacobus Marionette Show
On April 2, the library had a special treat for “kids” of all ages.
Marion Jacobus, from Orford, NH, came to put on a puppet show,
The Night of the Tomten, a Swedish story about elves that come
out, especially on the second of April, to help people and animals
in trouble.
Lots of
children and parents showed up at the
Town Center to see the show. The
Tomten helped a little dog called Rascal
to be brave enough to scare off the
wolf.
The children
cheered Rascal on by chanting, "Try, try, try!!"
Many thanks to
Marion for presenting this great show. The
kids all loved it.
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Local Author Series - Vince Feeney
 On
St. Patrick's Day, Vince Feeney, author of Finnigans,
Slaters and Stonepeggers: the History of the Irish in Vermont
came to Vershire to talk about his book and tell the little known
story of the impact Irish immigrants had on Vermont life in the mid
19th century. He began with the story of the Irish copper
miners in Vershire and the "labor war" in 1883. He then moved on to
the overall story of the Irish in Vermont. Beginning in the
late 1840s and lasting through the 1860s, thousands of Irish
immigrants settled in Vermont. They arrived just as Vermont
was undergoing a mini industrial revolution, based on railroad
construction, the quarrying of slate and marble, and on textile
production. During the course of the talk we learned meaning
and origin of "Finnigan," "slater," and "stonepeggers." And
it's all in Vince's book!
Before the talk, being the third
Thursday of the month, it was
Community Soup Night, which had a real Irish flair. In
addition to three kinds of soup, there was corned beef and cabbage
and homemade Irish soda bread.
Many thanks to
the Vermont Humanities Council for sponsoring
this event, to library director Lynn Roy for
arranging it, and to Cheryl Howe, Carol Suich
and their legion of helpers for soup night.
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 Local Author Series
- Larry Olmsted
 Thursday,
February 17, sportswriter Larry Olmsted, from Hartland, Vermont,
came to talk about his book, Getting into Guinness – One Man’s
Longest, Fastest, Highest, Journey Inside the World’s Most Famous
Record Book. It was pure fun to hear about his exploits – in
golf he made the record for two games of golf on the same day the
farthest distance apart – California and Australia, and in poker the
longest game – 72 hours at Foxwoods Casino. We also learned about
the craziness and contradictory nature of the organization that
rules the world’s record keeping. Larry’s book is available for
borrowing at the Library.
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February Children's Activity - Puppets
  The
library was filled with excited little people on February 5, as
Andrea Herrington and Lynn Roy worked with them to make puppets.
After a lot of very careful work, the puppets were ready and it was
time for the big performance of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
It was very exciting and all three Billy Goats made it across the
bridge. Unfortunately for the Troll, he disappeared and was
never seen again.
The snack was delicious muffins which
were baked fresh in the Church-Orr House that very morning.
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Local
Author Series - Ron Krupp
  On
Thursday, February 3, author and gardener Ron
Krupp visited Vershire. The talk was great -
there was a good turnout - about 30 people - including 4 very well behaved children. We started with 3 soup choices, breads, cookies and brownies, and tea.
Ron spoke and showed slides illustrating the growth of industrialized agriculture, the problem of obesity and diabetes, and efforts in Vermont to establish local food distribution.
A lively question and answer session followed and plenty of discussion among those attending.
Both of Ron's books, Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening, and
Lifting the Yoke: Local Solutions to America's Farm and Food Crisis, are available in the Library.
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Let's Talk about Ladakh
On January 11, Lui Seace of Vershire
and Laura Yurkosky of Lyme, gave a slide presentation about their
experience in Ladakh, small territory in Northern India. Each spring and fall
the program Vermont Intercultural Semesters (VIS) sends about twelve Vermont students to spend a semester there and learn about their culture.
Lui was there in the spring of 2009, and Laura in 2010. We
learned about SECMOL,
which was founded in 1988 by a group of young Ladakhis to reform the educational system of Ladakh.
For most of their time in India, the Vermont students stayed at
SECMOL's campus in Phey, on the bank of the Indus River.
SECMOL Campus
Lui and Laura told about the land, a
desert area in the high Himalayas, their treks, the homestays with
Ladakhis in their villages, and their classes. When asked what
was most memorable about the experience, they both replied, " the
people." And a favorite food was momos, which are dumplings
filled with with either ground meat or vegetables, and served with a
spicy tomato sauce.
Curtis Koren, the
founder of VIS gave a bit more background about
VIS. Kathy Hooke, who first went to Ladakh as a
teacher in 2000, talked about how Ladakh has
been terribly affected by climate change and
last year experienced terrible flooding that
wiped out entire villages. People
attending were asked to consider making a
donation to help out, and over $200 was raised.
The evening ended with everyone
invited to sample some momos that Kathy had made for the occasion.
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 Doll Exhibit
The Green Mountain Doll Club's traveling collection of 33 dolls and animals
representing characters from favorite children's books visited the Library for
the entire month of December.
Visitors got the chance to meet Dorothy and her friends, the cowardly lion, the scarecrow, and
the tin man; Madeline, Olivia, Heidi, Huckleberry Finn, Raggedy Ann, Pinocchio,
etc., etc.
Thank you to the Green Mountain Doll
Club for loaning us this exhibit.
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