Wilmington E. M. Cooper Memorial Public Library

Remembering Bill Carr – Flag and Memorial Dedication

Saturday, October 11th 2008 marked the dedication of the new flag and memorial raised in the honor of William J. Carr, a long time supporter of the library. Bill’s family, friends, local supporters and the library board gathered on a beautiful autumn day to celebrate his life and remember all that he did for our library and community over the years.

The Carr Family Raises the Flag. This Flag flew in Billâ€™s memory over the United States Capitol in September of 2007.

The Flag raised and the dedication complete.

Our library might not have its New York State Charter were it not for Bill’s efforts. A native son of Wilmington, he left the area as an adult, but maintained a family home here and continually worked to help the town and the library no matter where he was. All that he did for us is detailed in the History of the Library, by Dana Peck.

Jane Peck, a past president of the library who worked with Bill to get our charter, shares memories of all that he did for us.

Bill’s family and the board of the library decided last winter that a fitting memorial would be a flag and monument set on our lawn between the library and the Ausable River. With Whiteface, Marble and Esther Mountains in the background, along with the Wilmington Range, Lake Everest, and the Ausable River, the setting will remind all who knew him of how much he valued the community and its resources.

The flag and pole were funded by all the contributions made in Bill’s memory. The stone came from the land where his family still maintains a camp here in Wilmington, the construction and raising of the pole were generously done by the Town of Wilmington Highway Department, and the stone was carved by Carnes Granite in Ausable Forks.

Summer Reading Program

The theme for this summer’s reading program was “Catch the Reading Bug”.Â We had 8 children and 3 teens participate.Â Each week the kids came and listened to our friend Colleen Mulvey tell her wonderful stories.Â After the story, they made crafts and chose the books that they were going to read.Â The children read for a combined 240 hours forÂ the 6 week program.Â We are so proud of them!Â The kids were encouraged to read for 15 minutes each day and we focused on the time spent reading instead of the number of books read.Â On August 28, 2008 we had a party to celebrate the end of our program.Â We had a bunch of goodies to eat and we made bookmarks.

After making the bookmarks, the children received their incentives for participating.Â Each child got an award certificate, a gift bag filled with fun things like rubber lizards, bugs in slime, a craft kit and bouncy balls.Â Included in the incentive was an envelope containing a $15 gift card to Borders, a $3 gift certificate and a free Slush PuppieÂ at the Little Supermarket, a free game of mini-putt at the North Pole Campground & Inn, and 2 free ice cream cones at Stewart’s.Â The children were thrilledÂ to be rewarded and it was lovely to see them so excited.

I want to extend a huge thank you to two of our local businesses who helped make this a success for the kids.Â Roy Holzer from the Little Supermarket donated free Slush Puppies to the kids and Jim and Mary Ellen Carmelitano of the North Pole Campground & Inn donated the free games of mini-putt.Â It is fantastic that these businesses are supporting our children in such a great way.Â We also had an anonymous donor who gave $100 toward the prizes.Â Thank you anonymous donor!

New titles added to our children’s collection

We have recently added Mo Willem’s pigeon books to our collection. These books feature a wacky pigeon in some hilarious adventures. The titles are: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late, The Pigeon Has Feelings Too and The Pigeon Wants a Puppy.

Get in touch with your inner pirate by reading How I Became a Pirate and Pirates Don’t Change Diapers by Melinda Long and illustrated by David Shannon.

As most regular visitors know, we have spent most of the past year recovering from a flood on our lower level and refurbishing our Children’s Area. The losses were extensive, but thanks to a $1200.00 grant from the Lake Placid Education Foundation and the Senator Betty Little patron grant we have been able to complete the replacement of our books and other media.

Children's reading and activity area — Our Children's Reading and Activity Area

Our Children’s Reading Room was dedicated last year to the man who has spent countless hours on this and many other projects to keep our building running and whole.

Frame with certificate dedicating the room to Howard Trumbull

The New Computers Have Arrived

We have received two new computers thanks to our participation in a program run by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and facilitated by CEF. Both are welcome additions to the public access computers in our main area upstairs. We now have four internet ready computers available to the public, which together with the wireless access available throughout the library help meet needs of the community. Local residents as well as vacationers come in on a regular basis and we are pleased with the number of people using our internet access services. Please stop by any time.

Thanks to Dan Gould for helping with the setup and other technical aspects of getting these up and running.

In addition to the new computers, Dan has also upgraded the hard drives in the other two computers. We have also converted our “Office” software from the 2003 version to the 2007 version, which is being used by the local schools. This will allow students who don’t have access to this software at home to work on projects here at the library.