Watauga County Public Library Newsletter                                                      February 2018
In This Issue
Children's Programs
Family Story Time
Stories, songs, and crafts!
Daily at 11:00 am

Alphabet Ready by 5
Celebrate a different letter of the alphabet on Mondays!

Baby Lap Time
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 am

How Full Is Your Bucket Special Storytime
Tuesday, February 6 at 11:00 am

  Lego Club
All ages welcome!
Wednesday,
February 7 at 3:30 pm

Tinkering Thursday
Thursday, February 15 4:00 pm until 6:00 pm

Family Yoga with Patience Perry
Friday, February 16
at 11:30 am

Random Acts of Kindness Storytime
Saturday, February 17 at 11:00 am

Express Yourself with Preschool Music wih Laura Donovan
Tuesday, February 20 at 11:00 am

  Beginning Coding Club
Tuesday, February 20 at 4:00 pm

  Book Club
Tuesday, February 27 at 4:00 pm

Adult Programs
ARL's Good Neighbor Project, Cracked, Not Broken, Kick Off
Thursday, February 1 all day

Weatherization Drop-In Information Session
Thursday, February 1 from 3:00 pm until
7:00 pm

VITA Tax Help, by appointment
Friday, February 2 at 3:00 pm

VITA Tax Help, by appointment
Saturday, February 3 at 9:00 am

Cook the Books:  Mystery Book Club
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Tuesday, February 6 at 4:00 pm

VITA Tax Help, by appointment
Friday, February 9 at 3:00 pm

VITA Tax Help, by appointment
Saturday, February 10 at 9:00 am

High Country Lifelong Learners Movie:
"Loving" February 12 at 2:00 pm

Legal Aid:  N.C. Clinic:  Divorce
Thursday, February 15 at 2:30 pm

VITA Tax Help, by appointment
Friday, February 16 at 3:00 pm

VITA Tax Help, by appointment
Saturday, February 17 at 9:00 am

Legal Aid N.C. Clinic:  Landlord/ Tenant Rights
Thursday, February 22 at 2:30 pm

VITA Tax Help, by appointment
Friday, February 23 at 3:00 pm

VITA Tax Help, by appointment
Saturday, February 24 at 9:00 am

Small Business Bootcamp
Wednesday, February 28 at 4:00 pm

Western Watauga Programs and Events
LEGO Free Play
Thursday, February 15 from 1:00 pm until
7:00 pm

NEW!  Dementia Support Group
Thursday, February 1 and 22 at 3:00 pm

    Open to people living with Dementia, their families, caregivers and friends.  Connect with others going through the same experiences.  Ongoing meetings are scheduled for the last Thursday of each month.  On site care for your loved one is provided during the support group meeting.  For more information, contact Western Watauga Branch Library at (828) 297-5515.
Dear Readers,

By now you may have received your W2 and are receiving other tax documents. We are in our eighth year of offering the VITA program (Volunteer for Income Tax Assistance) for those eligible who made $54,000 or less in 2017 . Give us a call at 264-8784, extension 2 to check your eligibility and make an appointment .
We welcome Tim Dannenfelser (pictured), our new VITA Site Coordinator. Tim will run the program and ensure that all goes smoothly!
Thanks to the IRS, Appalachian State University, and the Friends of the Watauga County Public Library for support.
See press release for more information and other VITA locations.

Let the VITA program take the stress out of tax preparation!

~ Monica Caruso 

Friendship Valentine's Party Storytime
hearts-icon.jpg Join us in the Youth Services department for a special Valentine's Day celebration!  We will begin at 11:00 am with a special story time and continue with crafts and snacks.
ARL's Good Neighbor Project
  Maintain and Manage your Mental Health
The library received an LSTA grant to promote a series of programs on mental health in 2018.  Our features book is   Cracked, Not Broken by Kevin Hines. The author will speak three times in our region in April (see above).  We have numerous copies of the book at the library and there are "Read and Return" copies in the community. Over the course of the next 3 months, we plan to offer yoga, meditation, films, and programming on suicide prevention awareness and more, so stay tuned!

Thursday, February 1:  All Day Kickoff
Stop in and pick up a copy of the book, a free homemade stress ball, and a February calendar!

Saturday, February 17 at 3 pm:

Inner Peace: Meditation for a Healthy Mind: Learning to Accept Yourself with Sophia Ojha

 

Sunday, February 18 at 4 pm
Gentle Yoga class with Sandra Diaz at
Neighborhood Yoga, 659 W. King Street, Boone

Tuesday, February 20 at 9:30 am 
Laughing Yoga with Karen Gross at the library
New Monthly Meditation Program
Starting in February 2018, a program of meditation and visualization, "Inner Peace: Meditation for a Healthy Mind," will be offered at the library.  Local residents of all ages can come and learn how to take charge of their mental well-being.  The program will focus on daily practices to calm the mind and wash away the daily stresses, using breath awareness exercises and relaxation techniques combined with guided creative visualizations.  These are skills that the participants can learn and use on their own in their daily lives.
"Inner Peace" will be held in the Meeting Room on the third Saturday of each month from 3:00 pm until 4:00 pm, on February 17, March 17, April 21, and May 19.  The program is hosted by Sophia Ojha Ensslin (see reflectionpond.com), a long-time meditator and writer on topics of training the mind, introspection and creating inner peace.  This series is part of the mental wellness initiative funded by ARL's Good Neighbor Project:  Maintaining and Managing Mental Health.
This program is helpful for anyone who wants to learn how to deal with tensions at home or stresses from the job.  It can be used by students to better deal with the pressures of student life.  It can help people better cope with loneliness, physical illness, depression, irritation, anger and can help increase a sense of compassion, kindness and love towards themselves and others.  It is beneficial to all groups ranging from moms and dads, professionals, students, the elderly and anyone who is interested in taking care of their mental well-being.

Dolly Parton Imagination Library
Do you want free, high quality children's books sent to your door?  Is your child under the age of 5?  Sign up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.  Visit www.smartstart.org/dpil-registration.  Complete a brief survey and register your child and receive free books!
Chris Arvidson to Visit
Local author Chris Arvidson will be the featured presenter at the regular meeting of the High Country Writers at the Watauga County Public Library on Thursday, February 8 at 10:00 am.  The program is free and open to the public. 
     Ms. Arvidson co-edited The Love of Baseball:  Essays by Lifelong Fans with Diana Nelson Jones, a longtime reporter and columnist with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Ms. Arvidson contributed her own essay, "Nothing Else Like It," about the Detroit Tigers' magical run to the World Series title in 1984.
     In addition to The Love of Baseball, she has edited Reflections on the New River: New Essays, Poems and Personal Stories and Mountain Memoirs:  An Ashe County Anthology.      
     Presently she is an adjunct professor in the UNC Charlotte English Department, and co-founder of Wordkeepers, a bi-monthly salon for writers and readers that gives writers around Ashe County a chance to read 5-minute excerpts from their work.  The writing salons have been held every other month for 10 years, routinely drawing 20 to 30 writers.  She has also participated in an archeological dig sponsored by UNC Charlotte in Jerusalem for three summers.
     High Country Writers has been "energizing writers since 1995."  Regular meetings are in the Library's Meeting Room on the second and fourth Thursdays of most months from 10:00 am to noon.  HCW members also present writing and have publishing skills workshops from 10:00 am until noon the first Thursday of most months, partnering with Watauga County Arts Council to offer them at Art Space.  For more information and a current calendar, visit   http://highcountrywriters.tripod.com.  If weather forces the library to close, this program will be cancelled.  Guest are welcome.  Membership is $15.00 annually.
Friends of the Library
Dick Hearn, a great
Friend of the Library,
passed away on December 31.
Dick was active
on the Friends of the Library board
for many years as President,
Treasurer, and Membership Chair.
Dick will be missed by many,
and the library is forever grateful
for his support through the Friends. 
Thank you to the following donors to the library:

Larry and Ann Keeter ~ Adult Books
Sandra Basel ~ Adult Books
Kate Hardin ~ Adult Books
Phyllis and Richard Crandall ~ Adult Books

WATAUGA COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY | (828) 264-8784 | mcaruso@arlibrary.org | http://www.arlibrary.org/watauga
140 Queen Street
Boone, NC 28607