Toy Town

BRIDGING IDEAS AND BUILDING FUTURES

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Last month I was appointed as the Secretary of the Friends of Beals Memorial Library, during their annual business meeting.

One of the projects I am working on, as part of a library team, is a set of four community conversations, to be held throughout the winter months. The title of these conversations will be, “Bridging Ideas and Building Futures”. The discussions will be based around four questions about discovering our community identity.

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The library sponsored something like this a few years ago in a program called “the town wide read”. As a community we read the Book, HEY KIDDO

That book sparked some powerful discussion back then. This new town wide discussion forum is going to be connected to other reading and viewing opportunities. I am hoping we will see not only interesting discussion but affirmative action towards becoming something new.

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I will keep you updated. Is your community doing anything exciting this winter?

Juggle-O-Rama

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My newest role in the community is as a friend of the library. The friends sponsor programs at the library that promote its mission and vision. The first project I was privileged to be a part of was a juggling workshop for kids used to promote the library’s summer reading program.

The auditorium was packed with kids several from our church. I am so in love with this little town that provides so much for its citizens.

Here are some pics.

Manuel King, the director of the Beals Memorial Library opened the show with a push for the summer reading program.

BALANCING THE BABY

ALL THE KIDS HAD A GREAT TIME.

SEVII WAS A LITTLE YOUNG FOR THE WORKSHOP. HE STILL HAD FUN PRETENDING THE THROWING SCARVES WERE SPIDERWEBS AND TRAPPING HIS FATHER IN THEM.

AN AUSPICIOUS WEEKEND

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What a big weekend! Friday morning began with my first meeting at 7:30 A.M. followed by a farewell breakfast for one of the members of our council of churches who is moving to a new church across the state.

By late afternoon I was helping Patrick Cortis set up for his concert at Sippin Serendipity. The coffee house was packed out and it was a beautiful night of worship and music.

Towards the end of the night I sat with my grandson Sevii and his ring pop so that Sevii’s mom could take pictures (she has sort of become Patrick’s official photographer).

We finished cleaning up by about 9:30 P.M. and I went home to bed and crashed.

I was up and out by 7:15 A.M. on Saturday so we could get set up for our church workday. We had crews washing windows, repairing faucets, deep cleaning the cafe and our downstairs ministry staging room. Meanwhile another team was outside weeding and raking the playground and leaf blowing the parking lot while a third team fixed the back projector in the sanctuary.

After that we went home and took a brief nap before heading out to The Winchendon Food Truck Festival.

We ended up going down for both lunch and supper. It was a great time and I got to talk to so many people.

It was at this event that T-Mobile announced that the town of Winchendon was one of 25 towns across the U.S. chosen to receive a $50,000.00 grant for improvements! Things are changing in our little town!

It was an auspicious weekend!

A $4,000,000.00 CHALLENGE

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Yesterday, The Beals Memorial Library, in Winchendon, hosted the 2025 Legislative Breakfast to discuss library policy for our region. I was blessed to be in attendance with about 70 other leaders in our town.

We heard a lot about the history of libraries in New England and about the benefits of having a library in a town. We also heard about some of the specific benefits that Beals brings to our town.

But even as we celebrated the accomplishments and benefits of our library we learned that our town, Winchendon, faces a $4,000,000.00 shortfall this year that comes largely because of an increase in insurance and retirement costs for town personnel (something I am keenly aware of as our own church insurance costs have soared this year).

If our town cannot come up with a solution to meet this challenge, then our library, our senior center and our parks and recreation department will all be shuttered.

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I spoke with the head librarian briefly after the meeting. I told him I was bringing this information to my congregation. I am beginning to pray into this. I am beginning to speak into this. I don’t yet know what God will do, but I feel like He is going to do something!

TOY TOWN FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS 2024

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Last weekend was Winchendon’s Festival of Lights.

My volunteer position was as a greeter at The Breakfast with Santa. It was mostly traffic direction and helping one of the vendors carry her boxes up to the craft fair.

The dining room stayed full for most of the morning, and Santa was kept busy taking pictures with the kids and handing out candy canes.

Ms. Grinch also put in an appearance.

While the breakfast was going on downstairs at The Toy Town Senior Center, The great hall upstairs was hosting a craft fair.

My daughter Melanie is on The Parks and Recreation Committee which hosted the whole day.

The town wide Cookie Crawl started at 9 A.M. and went until 2 P.M. Area business provided cookies that could be gathered in these boxes.

The town held a gingerbread house competition and a letters to Santa time. Then the whole night was capped off with the tree lighting at Grout Park on our local Bike Path.

How does your town or family ring in the holidays?