Manchester Library Friends Newsletter

September 2007

2007 Schedule (Volunteers needed)

Sept 14, 9:30 Garden Weeding

Sept 15, 9-3:00 Book Sale

Sept 26, 4-5:30 Reception for 60^th Anniversary

Sept 26, 7-8:15pm FOML Mtg

Oct 11, 5-7:00pm Toasting 60 Years - Wine Tasting – Puget Sound Wine Cellar

Oct 12, 9:30 Garden Weeding

Oct 24, 7-8:15pm FOML Mtg

Nov 17, 9-3:00 Book Sale

Message from the President

---John Winslow, President FOML

On September 26^th we will be celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the Manchester Library. At first glance, this may not seem to be a particularly big deal. Only after you have had a chance to study the history of our Library will you understand all of the tremendous community support that has allowed this special place to even exist!

For the early years of the Library, we were given space for books in facilities (that may be a bit of a stretch to call them “facilities”) that were donated for use as a library. Those who staffed the library were all volunteers, and of course the hours of operation were very limited.

As we grew, new buildings were constructed with dedicated volunteer fundraising and labor, and the land was provided by the Port of Manchester on a long-term $1 per year lease (which is still in effect). The organization “Friends of the Manchester Library” was formed in 1976 in order to properly raise funds for our current building. One of our long-term Friends, Nobi Kawasaki, worked with the Federal Farm Home Administration to secure a 40 year loan for that building and through even more diligent fundraising, we were able to “burn the mortgage” only six years later!

Today we honor the volunteer tradition that has made the Manchester Library the special place that it is. We continue to raise funds to operate and maintain the building via exhaustive volunteer fund raising activities and look forward to future growth and providing our expanding community with a library facility which reflects our pride for Manchester and the value of literacy and lifelong learning.

Please join us in saluting those members of the community who pulled together to build the foundations of our Library so many years ago!!

Summer Reads Program gets funding boost

---by John Winslow

For the last several years Kitsap Regional Libraries has offered a Summer Reading Program.  This program is directed at all ages, newborns through young adults, and encourages reading during the summer vacation.  Students are encouraged to complete at least 10 hours of reading during their summer vacation and are rewarded at the conclusion with their choice of a free paperback book and a ticket to the Kitsap County Fair. As you know, literacy is critical to the success of our young people, and this is one small step we can take to help encourage that right here in our own backyard!

Each of the nine branches of KRL conducts such a program and the Friends of the Library group at each branch are asked to donate to offset the cost of the program.  This year the Friends of the Manchester Library was able donate $1000.

The Friends learned of several other charitable organizations which were interested in supporting such programs and sought matching grants to help maintain this important program during the current budget crisis which KRL is facing.  The Fred Meyer Foundation stepped up with a donation of $2000 and the Kitsap Association of Realtors provided $500.  We would like to publicly thank these two fine organizations for their commitment to literacy here in Kitsap County with these wonderful donations!

Salmon Bake a Great Success

--by Gigi Weixler

The Father’s Day salmon bake went off without a hitch (well, nothing serious anyway!), thanks to the many hours spent planning by the committee involved. Nearly 800 people came to have salmon, cole slaw, beans, and garlic bread, and the library parking lot was a busy place.

Our thanks, once again, to the many volunteers who make this event possible, and to the businesses who donated food, materials, and money. It was a financial success as well as a lot of fun, and the food was great! You won’t want to miss the next one, so plan on attending next June!

Plant Review: Cerinthe major var purpurascens (Blue Honeywort)

---by Norma Brady

This plant is a strong true blue color and perhaps you’ve seen it in all its glory, growing across from the vets’ garden, near the parking lot entrance to the library. It is a very heavy bloomer from early spring to the first frost. During our April plant sale, it gives a colorful background to our other plants, and we always get requests for information about it, and for starts. Unfortunately, it is an unhappy transplant, becoming floppy and sad. So the gardener becomes discouraged and yanks it out. But starting it from seed is another story: the plant thrives and becomes sturdy, and spreads nicely over a large area, though it’s easily kept in check. In late summer there will be numerous seedlings growing among the mature plants that will winter over and look like succulent sedums. When the mature plants start looking tired, these young plants will take their place.

In the NW, and in our zone 8, cerinthe acts mostly as a perennial, though the garden books may classify it differently. It is not particular with garden placement and will take full sun or part shade and minimum water.

I’ve never seen this plant in nurseries, and usually seeds are passed from friend to friend. Apparently it is not a new species, as in John Gerard’s 16^th century Herbal it was grown for the pleasure of sipping the honey from the flowers – hence the name honeywort. The leaves are a mottled blue green, and the flowers attract bees and hummingbirds. The seeds are black and large, and are easily collected before the plant “explodes” them by harvesting the whole branch and putting it in a paper bag.

This plant will make you happy just because of its exuberance in your garden!

The Library Staff Recommends:

Dee: The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich

You are in for a double treat when you read Louise Erdrich who combines a story rich in humor, tragedies and the complexities of human life with exquisite writing that can be savored for its lyrical qualities and beautiful imagery. This is the story of the Father Damien Modeste who served on the Native American reservation in North Dakota with the Ojibwe people. It is a story of famine, epidemics, murders and family feuds, as well as a mystery involving the saintly priest.

Leigh Ann: The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland

Best selling author Susan Freeland's third novel is based on the real life story of turn-of-the century Canadian painter, Emily Carr. It richly brings to life her journey as a woman, as she struggled against Victorian sensibilities to become a respected artist. Set in the lush forests of British Columbia, it vividly engages the reader and quickly immerses them into the life and times of Emily Carr.

Deidre: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

From the Author of The Kite Runner comes another well written, riveting tale that includes betrayal, family, friendship, love and faith. The story of two generations facing the harsh realities of living, as women specifically, in a war torn country under rule of theTaliban and then post-Taliban. Miriam and Laila thrown together by fate, forge a lasting friendship and become true allies in their struggle to survive despite the hardships of living in a male-dominant and oppressive society. Although slow in the beginning, this book soon became a hard to put down read. Be sure to stick with it - you won't be disappointed.

The Writings of Steven Jay Gould

--a review by Bill Lounsbery

Steven Jay Gould was a paleontologist, an evolutionary biologist, and a science historian who once admitted that his most influential read was The Little Engine That Could. Between 1974 and 2002, he wrote 300 consecutive essays for Natural History magazine and 20 books, often collections of those essays. With equal aplomb, he could explain the design of a new typewriter, why a baseball squirted through Bill Buckner’s legs in the sixth game of the 1986 World Series, and scientific theory.

He grew up in a secular Jewish home in Queens, and would often speak out against cultural oppression. In 1982, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and told that he had “as a median, eight months to live.” He kept on trucking for another 20 years, however, finally succumbing to a form of cancer totally unrelated to the stomach problem.

Albeit a bit highbrow, he nonetheless made science almost understandable. Witty, learned, and a gifted interpreter of biological theory, he seemed most at home when clarifying (if not correcting) the history of ideas within the realm of scientific discovery.

When not writing, he taught at Harvard University of worked at New York’s Museum of Natural History. My introduction to Gould was Wonderful Life, a perceptive discussion of fossilized Burgess shale left in Canada from the Cambrian era’s explosion of life over half a billion years ago.

Gould was an avid fan of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. (The wonder is that we humans arose from a single-celled creature that once inhabited a shallow sea....but I digress.)

In The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister’s Pox, published posthumously, Gould tells us why science and the humanities must work together. (an avowed skeptic, he lumps religious writings with the humanities.) Part of the title comes from a comment made by Archilochus (a Greek soldier-poet who lived in the 7^th century BC) that the fox devises many strategies for survival while the hedgehog has only one—but it’s very effective. (As for the “magister’s pox,”, read the book.)

Gould died in May 2002. We shall miss the man, his unwritten thoughts, and unrecorded insights.

Editorial Commentary

--some thoughts from Carol Campbell

The Manchester Library exists because some citizens got together in 1947 and made it happen. They didn’t wait for “someone else” to do it. They didn’t wait for “the government” to step in and provide a library. They just accepted the fact that sometimes the only way to get something done is to do it yourself.

That kind of spirit still exists in Manchester, in the citizens who volunteer, whether for library fund raisers, for citizen advisory boards and committees, or for periodic street and garden clean up work parties.

If you’re new to the area and want to get to know your neighbors, join in and help with one of these projects or committees. If you’re “a native”, have been here for years, and see something you’d like changed, join in and help. There’s no better way to make a difference than to “just do it!”