~ Albert Schweitzer
We accomplished a lot in 2007. How did that happen? Hmmm, well, we happen to be very lucky that we live in a community full of talented and generous individuals. We are very fortunate that many people in our own community came out to the library to share their time and their skills with us.
So, as we wrap up 2007, let's offer some gratitude to those who have helped to light the flame within us all.
Harriet Gordon taught us how to knit and inspired us with her beautiful creations.
Pria "starheart" Campanelli led us through a spiritual evening of yoga and meditation.
Jack Yang helped us improve our chess skills and we enjoyed challenging him and one another!
Tina Weishaus shared her Global Warming presentation with us. An Inconvenient Truth, indeed.
Maxine Sussman shared her beautiful rock collection and inspired us to write poetry that we published in our teen magazine, Expresso.
Laura Callahan and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's office presented a fascinating program all about crime scene investigation to kick off our summer reading program.
Sergeant Gary Panichella kicked off our book buddies program by reading to us. I heard he is in one of our teen films as well.
Rick Black taught us how to write haiku and showed us how to make our very own haiku
booklets illustrated with handmade stencils.
Pat Huneke, and her therapy dog, Phoenix, came in so our book buddies could read to Phoenix. Phoenix was a very good listener and Pat was terrific for sharing her time and her
story of working with a therapy dog.
Jennifer Williams ran some super programs for us including the very popular Harry Potter party! Welcome back, Jennifer, we missed you.
Leora Wenger shared her talents with us by showing us how to design our own websites using CSS. You can see them if you visit the teen page of our website www.hpplnj.org/teens
Marc Mappen, entertained us with fascinating stories of Weird NJ!
Dara Botvinick and Tim Harrison have been bringing the 6th graders over to foster a love of reading and make sure the kids know that they are most welcome here at the public library. They have also used the art displays here as writing prompts. We'll be sharing some of those stories with you in Expresso. Awesome teachers, HP is lucky to have them both.
Along those same lines, awesomeness included, Nicole Marionni brought her poetry class over to do some research. She also brought the required summer reading books over to the library so we could make sure you all got your copies and so that I could have an opportunity to help you find your optional titles. I hope to see more of you next summer....
Gary Leslie, of HPTV, and Sam Shiffman are helping us make films for our teen film festival. They have been an extremely valuable resource to us and very generous with their time. Check out our commercials on HPTV!
Our library board, our director, Jane Stanley, and all of the staff here are very supportive of all that we do, for that we are very grateful. Jeanne, Fran, Lucy, Val, Lisa, Renee, Udeshi, Maria and all of our part-timers and pages - thank you for all that you do to make the Highland Park Public Library a wonderful place to be!
The Friends of the Library who fund our programs. We couldn't do any of it without them.
I look forward to a new year full of reading, writing, playing and whatever else we decide to do - with you.
Be happy, healthy, safe and always, always grateful.
Michelle
