December 21st!
Did you know we offer art and card making classes?
Ask about our Therapy/Emotional Support Animal programming. It’s wonderful! Here are moments from our November Pigsty Saturday.
September 23rd, we held our first Yoyo Event. It was FUN! We’ll have another next spring.
Join us Saturday, July 22nd from 11:00 until 1:00 for our 1st Gardening Event! An educator from Vermont Garden Network will be here and we’ll be launching our new seed collection. We’ll have two prize drawings and starter materials for first arriving participants. Rain or shine. We may even have cookies!
All thanks to Stewart’s Shops!
Sign up for Summer Reading and/or Screenless Saturdays — entirely customizable programs to match your interests. Fill out the registration form and we’ll be in touch with details. Happy Summertime!
Registration closed. Thanks everyone; we’re all booked up!
Register below for our Hygge Valentine Card Making Class. This is an ADULTS ONLY program to be held Thursday, February 2, 2023 from 11:30-1:30. Only 8 spaces available. Class offered by the wonderfully talented Peg Browe. All supplies provided. No charge.
Registration for Card Making Class is Closed.
We invite you to join us for our 2nd Annual “In Our Hearts” Winter Solstice Bell Ringing.
This is a special tribute to the upcoming season and to those you love but — for whatever reason — can’t be near during this special time of year.
On the Winter Solstice at 5 PM, we’ll quietly gather under the lights on the green. For one full minute we’ll in unison ring our bells bearing the names of those we’re missing. You can participate for anyone or anything you love — a person, pet, place, special time, memory, or in reverence to the solstice. Ring for whatever’s in your heart.
We have 48 little silver bells. Each has a soft, charming tone. We also have paint pens designed for writing on metal. You can write your beloved’s name on the bell or, if you wish, Gina will do that for you. If you’d rather, yours needn’t bear a name at all. You may also bring your own bell.
To join us, please comment below, send a message via Messenger, email wellslibraryvt@gmail.com or get in touch through our website at http://www.WellsVillageLibrary.com. You may also call 802.645.0611 during our normal business hours.
Halloween is Corvid Night at Wells Village Library!
For this year’s celebration, we’re following the template we’ve used over the last couple years – educating about misunderstood or maligned creatures associated with Halloween. Past years, we’ve highlighted bats and spiders, now we’re featuring ravens and crows. Superstition and folklore often associate these birds with bad omens suggesting they’re harbingers of misfortune. In actualilty, they’re beautiful, smart, and play important roles in our ecosystem.
And, how can you talk about ravens on Halloween night without bringing along Edgar Allan Poe?
The first 20 families to visit will receive a gift bag with a copy of Poe’s poem, The Raven. The gift will also include a composition book featuring a vintage crow illustration that may inspire you to write your own poems, stories or thoughts about ravens, crows or anything you choose.
There will be new on-topic, cross-genre books for all ages, festive treat bags, crow and raven calls playing in the fully-decorated library, an audio of Poe’s poem, a prize-drawing, and an illustrated fact-card listing distinguishing characteristics between crows and ravens. Gina will be dressed as a crow witch and volunteers will be costumed.
We invite everyone of all ages to join us for an evening of ambiance and learning. And, we enthusiastically encourage teens and young adults to dress-up and stop by – we’ll have plenty of treats!
Our resident chipmunk, Nan, has been busy. She has 10 Autumn Leaf Craft Kits for the Kids!
One per family. First come, first served. Will be ready for pick-up Saturday, September 17th between 10 AM and noon.
Kits include:
leaf stencils,
4 washable markers,
1 poster board,
1 Leaves book by David Ezra Stein,
1 Leaves sticker book,
4 pieces of construction paper, and
1 idea/inspiration sheet.
Join us for our Sumer Book and Bake Sale. Great deals galore!
Sunday, August 21 from 2-3:30 PM, join us for Ethan & Ira: A Tale of the Green Mountain Boys! It’s a father-son play by Vermont Kids History Live. Bring the whole family; it’s going to be fabulous!
Thank you, Lakes Region Freepress, for publishing news on our next event. Join us, everyone, for a fun and informative afternoon at Lakeside Park!
Join us on the village green this Saturday, July 23rd at noon for our Community Time Capsule Ceremony. This meaningful event is possible through the generosity of Stewart’s Shops. Select Board Chairman, Don Preuss, will be Master of Ceremony. Our capsule containing various present day items will be sealed and buried for a duration no less than 25 years. The event is inspired by local resident Walter West’s memory of burying a capsule in the 1940s under the direction of his school teacher, Theodore Jerome, at an old one-room schoolhouse on Saw Mill Hill. The current owners of that property have graciously endeavored to locate the old capsule; however, we’ve recently learned it may be buried in the road due to property boundary changes since the ’40s. If ever the old capsule is found, it and its contents will be displayed at the library. In the meantime, we’re excited for Saturday’s hour-long, free event. The first 12 families to arrive receive their own time capsule kits to create a personally meaningful ceremony on their own grounds. There will be themed cake and cookies, water, and our mascot, “Nan,” will be visiting! Hank Waxman, professional photographer, will be present documenting the event. We’re hoping to have a fiddler, too!
Our Libraries Love Lakes Event was Wonderful!
Thank you to the Lake Champlain Basin Program for its Education and Outreach Grant that supported our Libraries Love Lakes Celebration, July 2-3, 2022! Wells Village Library collaborated with the Lake St. Catherine Association and the Lake St. Catherine Conservation Fund to create this 1st Annual event. It included an entry to the boat parade on July 2nd, and an educational, stewardship-driven community program on the 3rd. Give us a call to learn more about our on-going partnership and what that means for YOU. For example, WVL is creating a new section of the library dedicated to our beautiful Lake St. Catherine — so exciting!
Libraries Love Lakes is “an outreach project that pairs school and public libraries with lake scientists to provide collaborative programming emphasizing the importance of lakes in our everyday lives.” Check out http://www.librarieslovelakes.org.
WVL is proud to celebrate Pride Month in memory of the 1969 Stonewall riots and our nation’s ongoing quest to achieve equal justice and equal opportunity for our LGBTQ community. We have been featuring a meaningful, on-topic quote on our sidewalk board every day we’re open (like the one below from Harvey Milk, posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom). We’ll be acquiring more related resources, and on Saturday, June 25th, we’ll have rainbow-iced sugar cookies for our visitors between 9 and 1:00.
“It takes no compromise to give people their rights.” ~Harvey Milk
Sign up for our very own Solstice to Solstice Summer Reading Program by filling out the form below the image. Please feel free to add more than one name on the registration form. Include the category in which each reader will participate: Young Children, Juvenile, Later Teen/Young Adult, or Adult. The categories are loose and there are no firm delineations on age or reading materials, which will all be available from our shelves. Our program is entirely customizable and there will be drawings for prizes after the Fall Equinox! 🍂
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Here’s what we’ve got cookin’! Watch for more details or feel free to contact us to learn more about any event or program. It’s going to be a great season.
🌸🌱Attention Local Businesses, this one’s for you! Interested in supporting our Beautification Program?
Valentine’s Day Fun
In addition to Reading & Snuggles, Blind Date with a Library Book and Rendezvous with Rumi, we’ll be holding our 2nd Annual Love Your Library Go-Fund-Me Fundraiser on Facebook the week of February 7th – 14th.
Click the link to DONATE — we are very grateful!
Festive Give-Away for the Kids
🎄We have 15 festive bags for the little ones! Each will include one box of Cookie Buttons from The Vermont Country Store, one classic Little Golden Book and one package of modelling clay with a sheet of ideas to help spark creativity. With a little holiday luck, the bags should be available to pick-up by Saturday, December 18th. We can also deliver.
To reserve yours, please comment on our Facebook post, message us via Facebook Messenger, email wellslibraryvt@gmail.com or contact us here through our website.
To begin, we’re offering 1 bag per family. But, if you’d like more than one, let us know now. If there are any left, we’ll be sure to give them away in order of request until they’re gone.
“In Our Hearts” Winter Solstice Bell Ringing
As part of our ongoing Caring is Good campaign, we would like to invite you to share in a special tribute to those you love but — for whatever reason — can’t be with during this special time of year.
On the Winter Solstice at 5 PM, we’ll quietly gather under the lights on the green. For one full minute we’ll in unison ring our bells bearing the names of those we’re missing. You can participate for anyone or anything you love — a person, a pet, a special time in your life, even a place. For example, Gina will be ringing for her Grandma, Lida Belle.
We have 48 little silver bells that have a soft, charming tone. We also have paint pens designed for writing on metal. You can write your beloved’s name on the bell or, if you wish, we’ll try to do that for you. If you’d rather, your bell needn’t bear a name at all.
Folks of all ages are invited to participate. First come, first served. When the bells are gone, they’re gone. They will be yours to keep.
To join us, please comment on our Facebook post, send a message via Facebook Messenger, email wellslibraryvt@gmail.com or get in touch with us here through the Contact tab.
Halloween is right around the corner and it’s going to be FUN here at WVL! Visit us in your most creative costume and enjoy spooky tunes, candy (while it lasts), and enter a free drawing for a witch hat filled with Wellsmere Farm baked goods. Plus, we’ll be handing out C🕸🕸L factsheets on Vermont spiders and why they’re to be appreciated rather than feared. Be the first to find our little spider skeleton and win a copy of Sophie’s Masterpiece: A Spider’s Tale by Eileen Spinelli. AND — we’ve invited the ice cream truck. One free icy treat on us!
Kids, teens, and adults — everyone is welcome! 🎃🍂
COVID Precautions: Families should move through the library in a fashion to keep things rolling while staying socially distanced from other households as much as possible. We encourage mask-wearing, and we’ll keep our doors open for ventilation.
Join us for our 77th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, October 16th from 11 – 1:00. It’s our 2nd Annual Annie Day and we are very excited! Our theme this year is, “The Old Days.” We will have fiddlers and accompanying musicians, kits featuring 1940s-style games and toys, on-topic books, history, and The Larson Farm will be on-site with their homemade gelato. And, of course, our resident chipmunk, “Nan,” will be here for family photos. It’s going to be a special day, rain or shine.
Drop us a note or give us a call to reserve your kit(s)! NOTE: As of 9-13, all kits are claimed — thank you!
Join us! You won’t want to miss September at “the most beautiful little library in the world.”
Hula Hooping Family Fun Day
When? Saturday, August 7th from 10 AM until noon at WVL.
What? Creativity, Fun and Games for the Entire Family! And, the ice cream truck will be here as we conclude the event! 🍦
How? Space is limited to 10 families and registration is required. In “Other Details,” please include how many members will be in your group.
Supplies, water and one ice cream treat per person provided.
No need to register for the Book Club Meet & Greet. Hope to see you there!
Calling all comic book fans and creators! Now’s your chance to design your own comic book with your own unique characters and storyline. By Tuesday, July 6th, we’ll have 12 kits — one for each person who registers below. All ages welcome! Keep in mind anyone of any age may read your masterpiece. Your work will be on display at the library for about a month and all other participants, patrons and visitors will be welcome to peruse your comic and leave a review/feedback.
Interested but discovered all the kits are spoken for? You may still join the fun using your own materials.
Join us on the green for a Book & Bake Mini-Sale on Saturday, June 19th, 2021 during our normal operating hours: 9-1:00.
So long as there are no downpours or storms, we’ll be there!
Join us Saturday, May 22nd from 9 AM – 1 PM for our REOPENING and our Charlie Mackesy Program! No need to register. Come get a Wells Country Store cupcake, enter a drawing for an adorable gift basket featuring stuffed animals (can you guess what they are?) and be one of the first 20 families to visit to receive a FREE copy of Charlie’s beloved book!
Can’t wait to see you!
Register HERE for our May 15th bird walk led by our local Audubon folks!
Join us Saturday, May 15th from 9 – 10:30 AM at Wells’ Delaney Park. This is a free event with limited capacity. We will look and listen for Song Sparrows, Yellow Warblers and American Redstarts, but will be thrilled with whatever species present themselves! Dress for light rain or shine. Bring insect repellant and binoculars, if you have them. We’ll try to have extras on site.
We will hold two drawings for some wonderful bird-related items included embroidered bird caps and even a locally-made bluebird house!
Members of Lake St. Catherine Conservation Fund, Inc. will also join us to answer questions regarding lake health and its impact on our avian friends.
March 20th is the Vernal Equinox! In celebration, we have 12 Spring Friend activity kits! Each kit contains one unstuffed friend, stuffing, a wishing star, birth certificate, carry tote and a beautiful little board book.
You can order either the lamb that comes with a bunny book OR the bunny that comes with the chick book. Supplies are limited to one kit per child. No charge.
You may reserve your kit(s) by contacting Gina here through our contact page, calling 802.645.0611 or emailing wellslibraryvt@gmail.com.
Kits will be ready Monday, March 15th so the wee ones will have a week to build excitement around the first official day of SPRING! 🌱
Join us December 19 from 2:00 – 3:30 PM for a little socially-distanced holiday magic. Drive up, meet Nan and get a free Christmas gift. We can’t wait to see you!
Our Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Pie Swap was cancelled due to an increase in COVID-19 throughout Vermont, but we plan to hold the event annually and look forward to 2021.
Join us this Blue Moon for a socially-distanced, fun Halloween!
With not-too-spooky music playing within these old walls, we’ll be in costume handing out 50 treat bags. Per tradition, the Mr. Ding-a-Ling ice cream truck will be here. We’ll also be distributing cards bearing amazing bat facts that explain why bats aren’t to be feared, but celebrated. Be sure to stop in the library between now and 7 PM Halloween night to enter a FREE drawing for a lovely, framed bat portrait/print by Gina Ellis inspired by the work of Merlin Tuttle, world renowned bat conservationist.
That’s not all! For those of you who follow us here on Facebook and are enamored by Gatsby, the Great Dane, he and Kiki Maples (his owner/library volunteer) will be on the green. You might just get a glimpse of Gatsby in his lobster costume!
And, of course, we’ll have our best and creepiest Halloween books for all ages displayed and ready to borrow.
Can’t wait to see you!
Thank you for voting for our first-ever mascot; here’s your choice!
We are very excited and can’t wait to create our new logo along with some wonderful fund-raising merchandise that will help support upcoming programs and the procurement of new resources.
First Annual Annie Huyck Day/Our 76th Anniversary Celebration
On October 12, 1944, resident Annie Huyck donated to Wells a beautiful structure that was originally a Universalist Church. Her only stipulation was it exclusively and in perpetuity be used as a public library. Ever since, the one-room building on the town green has been known as Wells Village Library.
“We believe Annie, renowned for her kindness and sense of community, would be thrilled to know how grateful the town remains for her profound act of giving. By all accounts, she was a beloved benefactress. We want to ensure her legacy lives on,” explains librarian, Gina Ellis. “To that end and made possible through a Stewart’s Shops donation, we are planning a multi-faceted 76th Anniversary Celebration for Saturday, October 17th from 2 PM until 4 PM.”
In Huyck’s honor, the library’s activities will focus on kindness and giving. New on-topic books will be available for all ages. Borrow a book, get a free treat from the ice cream truck on location. The library will distribute twenty-five art kits containing new pastels and multi-media sketch pads for families to artistically interpret what Annie’s philanthropy and traits like generosity and kindness mean to them. There will also be informational packets about Annie and the library’s history given to the first twenty-five families in attendence. A new video highlighting historic footage of the library’s 1944 dedication ceremony is in the works and will be uploaded for all to view through the library’s new YouTube channel. On a special note, the library is planning its first mascot. Attendees will have a chance to vote for one of several designs submitted by local artists. The new mascot will be named “Nan,” which was Annie Huyck’s nickname. Those who vote will receive a lapel badge declaring, “I voted for our Nan mascot.”
Finally, to provide families the opportunity to experience firsthand kindness and giving, the library will be gifting twenty-eight “Giving Muffins.” These are specially designed coupons for participants to give to someone else thereby gifting a free muffin from The Wells Country Store. “Without providing the opportunity for participants to themselves engage in giving, the event seemed incomplete. We are excited to offer folks the chance to give coupons for what we locals know are the best muffins in all of New England,” said Ellis.
The library timed its celebration to complement Modern Woodmen’s Chicken and Biscuit Take-out Dinner, also in Wells. The dinner benefits the Wells, Rupert and North Granville fire departments and begins at 4:00 PM. “Families can start their afternoon at the library, relax on the green, take a drive around Lake St. Catherine, then head to Modern Woodmen for dinner,” encourages Ellis, “It will be a great day rain or shine.” You can reach Modern Woodmen by calling Annie Rathbun at 518-641-9283. Those attending either/both events should social distance, wear a mask and observe all COVID-related protocols.
🌟ANNOUNCEMENT🌟
The most beautiful little library in the world is for the first time going to have a MASCOT. We want YOU to be involved! The mascot’s name will be “Nan,” which was Annie Huyck’s nickname. We love this wonderfully gender-neutral name and how it represents our enduring love for Annie. Check out our website’s history tab if you need a refresher on the wonderful Mrs. Huyck.
Here are two of Gina’s mascot ideas: a chipmunk (our very first patron upon reopening our doors in June was a little chipmunk), and a fox (because they just seem so well-read).
What are YOUR ideas? Let’s see them! Submit your design by Friday, October 9th and we’ll have a community-wide vote on Annie Huyck Day/Our 76th Anniversary (see details above for Annie Day, which is Saturday, October 17th). There will be several ways to vote (on-line and in-person). Voting in person will get you a lapel badge that reads, “I Voted for Our ‘Nan’ Mascot.”
Tell your local artist friends! No age limit! Please spread the word. We are SO excited to see what you create!
Once we have a mascot, we will have fund-raising merchandise (including t-shirts). The artist whose design is picked will get a free t-shirt!
(Chipmunk and fox art by Gina.)
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First Annual Annie Huyck Day
Thanks to everyone who made Flora Fond a success!
🌸🌸NEXT: Flora Fond — A Farewell to Summer Home Study Activity🌸🌸
Dried flower art just in time for the equinox. This activity is more than initially meets the eye! Only 15 slots, so you must register. Don’t worry, we’ll have more programs throughout the school year.
Introduction: Every day since the library re-opened on June 7th, Gina has had a flower bouquet on her desk and one at the front door. As one bouquet loses its luster, she replaces it with a fresh one and places the old flowers in a basket to dry. This has resulted in a beautiful bunch of petals and stems just right for dried flower art.
Here’s the Activity: The library is putting together 15 kits including a packet of dried flowers, matt or cardboard and an 8” x 10” frame. As a gift, you will receive a packet of Forget-Me-Not seeds for next spring and a beautiful vintage-style flower bookmark. You will supply tweezers, glue and toothpicks. Each kit will come with instructions. When you’re finished, you’ll have original dried flower art to display and will have discussed some interesting and educational topics!
Home Study Learning Prompts: This is a fun and creative activity replete with opportunities for discussion: the seasons, transition, the equinox, life cycles, plants, preseveration, appreciation, best and highest use principles, visual composition, spacial reasoning, and whatever else arises from your imagination while engaged in the activity. Specific questions designed to prompt conversation will be included with each kit.
How to Participate: Because there will be a limited number of kits, interested Wells’ families should register for this program by emailing the library at wellslibraryvt@gmail.com, by calling 802-645-0611 or by filling out the registration form below. You can also register through Messenger on Facebook by visiting our page, Wells Village Public Library (link above). You will be officially registered upon receiving confirmation from Gina.
How to Obtain Your Kit: The week of the autumn equinox is September 21st. You may pick up your kit that week during our open hours, or we can arrange for local Wells delivery.
Registrants Automatically Entered to Win: Gina is putting together a lovely gift basket that includes Botanical Inspirations – a lovely inspirational deck with an accompanying book, several vintage-style floral bookmarks, a book to share with the kids entitled, Flowers: Explore Nature with Fun Facts and Activities, a poetry book called, The Language of Flowers, and – finally – some extra Forget-Me-Not seeds. The drawing will be held Tuesday, September 22nd. Watch our Facebook page (see link above).
Books & Ice Cream Event WAS A SUCCESS! Thank you, everyone! 📚🍦
A big THANK YOU to artists, donors and bidders! Our first virtual Art Auction Fundraiser was a success! We raised $1,430 for programming and the acquisition of new resources. We couldn’t be more excited! Take a look at who won each beautiful piece and what great deals were had:
Use Your Imagination was a success! 25 Hodgepodge Bags were gone in one hour! Scroll for the first creations that’ve come our way, then watch for upcoming collages showcasing all those for which we receive photos!
Don’t forget our Art Auction Fundraiser coming up August 1st on Facebook. More details below!
Folks can show up anytime during library hours and take one bag per family while supplies last. Each bag will be tied to a tree with ribbon. Families can take the ribbon, too! There is an array of seemingly unrelated items in each bag. See what imaginative creations you can dream up. No two bags are alike, so each brainchild will be unique!
This is a light rain or shine, first come-first served event. If it storms, Saturday, July 25th is the alternate date. There are twelve participating trees. The library will make as many bags as possible with the supplies they have.
Families, then, are asked to share their creations with Gina anytime before Friday, July 31st through the library’s Facebook page, email or by stopping by. Photos will be compiled into collages and shared early August on the library’s new website as well as social media.
Considering the pandemic has forced the cancellation of so many other community activities, this program is just one fun event that can spark imaginations, bring folks together toward the common goal of our final collages and still guard everyone’s safety through social distancing.
The library would like to remind folks to stay a minimum of six feet apart and wear a mask while retrieving the bags.
Wells Village Library 