Summer 2023 Community Letter
Posted on 07/13/23 by Daniel in Quarterly Program Guide
Dear Neighbors,
As we pass from the creative renewal of spring into the scorching months ahead, remember Wadsworth Public Library as a cool oasis where the stories are always flowing and, we hope, the air conditioning is always blowing. This summer, we encourage you to unplug as much as your busy life will allow. Bring the ladle of your curiosity to WPL and fill it up with stories, old and new.
At this oasis of calm, you’ll find the quiet whisper of timeless stories wishing to be heard. They can bring us closer to each other, our deepest values, and the miraculous natural world we inhabit. Within them we find vibrant threads and before we know it, find ourselves stitched back into the fabric of life. When we imagine the world of an author’s telling into being, in our own particular and unique way, the fiber of our own personhood is strengthened.
This magic happens whenever we engage an author with the single-pointed attention that reading requires and which our media-saturated environment is persistently urging us to relinquish: walking the long mile with an author. Whether we part ways in sympathy or disagreement, we gain something immeasurable in the encounter: a deeper sense of who we are and where we stand in this world. Leisure reading is an antidote to the chaotic background noise of contention and gridlock echoing ceaselessly as the discordant tuning pitch of this era.
This summer, as you reconnect with family, friends and neighbors, we invite you strike up (or renew) an acquaintance with those author-neighbors living on our shelves. The list of authors is long. The list of books, longer. As an old library maxim goes, “for every reader, a book.” Our staff look forward to helping you make that connection.
As vital and enlivening and readings is and shall be, there are many other ways to find refreshment and connection at Wadsworth Public Library this summer. Our team has planned a wide variety of engaging and entertaining programming for adults, including the wildly successful Live and the Library music series in partnership with ORMACO, a special performance by Wadsworth’s own international fingerpicking champion Jesse Smith, a crash course in videography by local videographer Jenny Young, and much more.
Summer Reading Club is back again with prizes, performances, crafts and other interactive activities for young readers. Register your child on or after May 26 to help them sustain literacy gains achieved in the pervious school year. You can learn more about summer reading registration and programs on page 8.
We are also excited to announce that the Wadsworth Public Library Foundation will be hosting a mini golf event inside the Library from Friday, June 2 through Saturday, June 3. This event is free and open to all members of the public. We thank the Foundation for organizing this fun family event for WPL and to Soprema and other individual hole sponsors for their generous support. Details are available on page 18.
We hope you see you in the Library soon. Wishing you and yours a joyful and imaginative summer season.
Sincerely,
Daniel Slife