Literary delights at Augusta County libraries

TAMMY LAYMAN / News Virginian
Published: June 20, 2007

Activities will be available at the Augusta County Main Library at 1759 Jefferson Highway, Fishersville, as well as the library's Churchville Branch.

"We held the program at the Preston Yancey Fire Department Community Building which is about a half mile east of the library on 250," said Tammy Coulter, youth specialist and children's programmer at the main library. "We are going to do a few of our programs there. We are currently renovating and adding to our children's department so we've tentatively relocated it in our basement. Although we have painted and really spruced it up and we are thrilled with the space we have for our programming, we are quite limited while the edition is being made. We are so happy that we were able to work out the space for some of our summer reading programs at the fire department nearby."

Special Events at the Main Library in Fishersville will include the Amazing Amazon Critters, featured June 28 at 7 p.m.

"Keith Folsom from Springdale Water Gardens will present a slide show presentation on the rain forest of the Amazon for the entire family," said Coulter. "He came to us and asked to present this program to the community. He is from Greenville and has actually been to a rain forest of the Amazon. He has a love of plants and hands-on experience."

The Wildlife Center of Virginia will also present a program at the Preston Yancey Fire Department Community Building on Thursday, July 5, at 2 p.m. The Virginia Wildlife Center will bring live animals and talk about their habitat and behavior. Participants can discover more about the ecology of Virginia and sharing Virginia's trails with native wildlife.

"We discussed their bringing three animals and I think one of those will be an owl," Coulter added.

The Churchville Branch, 3714 Churchville Ave., Churchville, will host the Wildlife Center of Virginia on Tuesday, July 10, at 6:30 p.m.

"We are particularly excited to have a magician coming to our Churchville location which is easily accessible in front of the elementary school in Churchville," said Coulter. "We hope everyone will travel to check out this library site and to attend this program. We are excited to offer so much programming at the various sites with our summer reading club."

Wes Iseli, magician extraordinaire, will mystify and dazzle as he entertains at the Churchville Branch on Tuesday, July 17, at 4 p.m.

"The magician should be really fun," Coulter said. "We just want the kids and their families to come and see the book collections we have and to read and enjoy the summer reading clubs."

On Thursday, July 19, at 4 p.m., the Churchville Branch of the library will host Linda Hartman, a master storyteller.

"Something else we are very proud about is our chess club offered during the summer by Ed Jankiewicz," Coulter said. "He will guide learners from kindergarten and up through the wonders and challenges of chess."

The Churchville Branch will host the Summer Chess Club on Mondays through July 23 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The Main Library in Fishersville will host the Chess Club from 5-6 p.m. through July 23.

"We have several library exhibits we show as we give tours of the library," said Coulter. "One is artwork by local artists; we tell students that we are very fortunate to have so many talented artists in our community. Another is a display case that holds antique collections that various individuals in the community sign up to use to show their various hobbies or collections. We had one of purses made out of placemats."

Anyone interested in displaying an art collection should call Laura Killingsworth at the Main Library in Fishersville.

The T.J. Reader's Virginia Trails is for everyone in the whole family, Coulter said. Children can join T.J. Reader's Virginia Trails Summer Reading Club and teens may get the book to read and discuss for "Lost in Time," their reading club.

Signups for the summer reading program will continue through Saturday, July 28. Reading packets with directions are available at all the library sites. Many prizes will be awarded when participants keep track of their reading time and meet their own personal reading goals.

"Many exciting, free programs for school-aged children will be taking place at all of our library sites," said Coulter. "We want preschoolers to teens to read to their parents. We have family prizes such as five restaurant gift certificates from local restaurants; we have a package with t-shirts and free groceries from Krogers and Martins. All three local libraries are working with the Augusta County Fair and they will give a free pass to readers who finish 12 hours of reading as a prize to get into the fair on August 8 for free."

The Augusta County library also has two other sites which offer library facilities - its Craigsville Station at 997-0280 and Deerfield Station at 939-4123.

For more information about the Augusta County Library summer reading program or any of its branches or sites, call the Main Library in Fishersville, at 949-6354 or 885-3961.

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