December 2024 Newsletter | |
"Outside, snow solidified itself into graceful forms. The peace of winter stars seemed permanent."
― Toni Morrison Beloved
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The Library will be CLOSED Tuesday-Wednesday December 24-25 for the Christmas Holiday.
The library will be CLOSED Wednesday, January 1, as we welcome in the New Year, 2025!
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Library Director Jody Ford Retiring after 31 years or service to our community
As many of you know, I am retiring as Library Director in December. The past thirty one years have flown by, and I want to thank all the Board members, staff and patrons who have been such an important part of my time here. I will miss everyone, but I am so excited to see what Gabrielle Esposito and her new team will bring to the library. Please welcome Gabrielle. I know she is going to be a wonderful asset to this library and to the community.
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From all of the staff, volunteers and trustees of the library, thank you for your leadership and service to our community. You will be missed. | |
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Welcome to our new Director Gabrielle Esposito
Gabrielle Esposito holds an M.S. in Information Science from SUNY Albany and brings a wealth of experience as an adult programmer at both the Howland Public Library and the Millbrook Library. A passionate writer, she also enjoys teaching writing workshops at public libraries across the country. Gabrielle is thrilled to have the opportunity to serve the Stone Ridge Library community and can’t wait to get started!
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Julianna Arms Retiring from Children's Services Position
As of Friday, December 20, 2024, Julianna Arms, who has been in charge of Children's Services at the Stone Ridge Library for the last 24 years, will be retiring from her position. "I have loved every aspect of working with the children in this community in various programs and through supporting literacy in collection development for our young patrons. It has been an honor to be part of the fantastic team at this important heart of our community. I will miss seeing the children bound happily into the library, sharing stories and laughs, engaging in activities and crafts. It has been my absolute pleasure. It is comforting to know I know I leave the Children's Room in the friendly and enthusiastic hands of Jodi Palinkas."
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Jodi Palinkas will be taking over the Children's Services position, and is eager to begin planning programming and working on the collection. She looks forward to meeting the community in the Children's Room. Be sure to be on the lookout for more children's programming in January 2025. | |
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Meet our new Director
There will be a meet and greet event to welcome our new Library Director, Gabrielle Esposito. Date/time TBD
A new Mindfulness Monday Program with Stephanie Speer:
The Power of the Pause: Moving from Reactivity to Responsiveness with Mindfulness
Monday, January 6, 2-3:30
Activity Room
This will be an opportunity to explore the power of the pause, to rest in non-reactivity, and to increase one’s ability to respond to oneself, to others, and to our life circumstances with greater wisdom and ease. Register here.
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Monday, November 25-December 30
The Library Knitter's needles have been flying all year to create beautiful things for our annual Library Knitters Sale.
New items will added regularly. We have hats, scarves, sweaters, mittens and much, much more. All purchases can be made at the circulation desk. Proceeds of all sales go directly to the library.
Thank you for shopping with us!
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Mindful Self-Compassion:
Opening a Pathway to a Kind and Caring Heart
with Stephanie Speer
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Mindful Self-Compassion: Opening a Pathway to a Kind and Caring Heart with Stephanie Speer
Monday, December 2, 2-3:30pm
Activity Room
This experiential program is an opportunity to explore the principles and practices of mindful self-compassion. We begin by recognizing that “I am both the comforter, and the one in need of comfort.” By turning compassion inward, we are kind and understanding rather than harshly self-critical. Upon acknowledging our current struggles, sufferings, and sorrows, we can then give ourselves support and encouragement. Research has indicated that by integrating mindful self-compassion practices into our daily lives, we strengthen our resiliency, and improve our mental and physical well-being.
Register here.
As a trained instructor of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Stephanie Speer has been teaching mindfulness to individuals and groups for over 30 years. She
received her Masters in Humanistic Education from Goddard College and completed
her MBSR training from Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli of the University of
Massachusetts Medical Center. Her professional work and personal life have been
informed by 35 years of meditation practice and Buddhist studies.
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Cookies, Cards and Community | |
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Tuesday, December 10
1-3pm
Activity Room
You bring in your own holiday cards, address book and postage stamps. We will have sponges to ease sealing envelopes, cute holiday ink stamps and stickers for envelopes.
And cookies...did we mention cookies and coffee and hot chocolate. We will also have extra cards available to fill out and add to the Rondout Valley Food Pantry holiday baskets.
No registration necessary.
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After Work Yoga with Laura | |
After Work Yoga with Laura
Wednesdays December 4, 11 & 18
5:30-6:30
Rondout Municipal Center
Our last yoga session for 2024!
Big thanks to the Town of Marbletown Parks, Trails & Rec. Dept. for our continued collaboration for free Wednesday yoga classes. Classes are held at the Rondout Municipal Center, on the Marbletown side of the building (in the former cafeteria space). All classes will be taught by Laura Brown and we are grateful to be working with her and the Parks and Rec. Dept. to bring these classes to our community.
Registration is required for each class due to limited space.
December 4 Register here
December 11 There will be no Yoga Class this week
December 18 Register here
December 25 No Class-Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!
Laura loves bringing yoga into people’s lives, encouraging her students to welcome space, breath, and movement to reset their bodies and minds. These classes are perfect for the absolute beginner, the curious, the seasoned yogi and everybody in-between! All are encouraged to move at their own pace in this hour-long class.
Please be sure to bring your yoga mat and any blocks or straps if you use them. The library will have extra mats, blocks and straps if needed. As with any exercise class, be sure to check with your doctor before starting.
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SUNY Ulster Student Art Exhibit | |
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SUNY Ulster Student Art Exhibit
November 4-December 30
Fine Art/Visual Art students from SUNY Ulster will showcase artwork from Drawing & Composition, 2-Dimensional Design, Advanced Studio, Printmaking, Watercolor, Photography, Intro to Design Foundation, and Painting.
The Fine Art/Visual Art program at SUNY Ulster is a two-year, foundation-based program that prepares students for transfer to complete their four-year degrees at some of the top art schools or to begin their careers.
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Let's Move with the Library | |
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Let's Move with the Library
Thursdays each month
from 12-1pm
Various Rail Trails
All are welcome as we talk and walk, getting in our steps and getting to know our neighbors. There is no registration necessary. Just show up with your walking shoes on.
All walks are weather permitting. Any cancellations will be posted on social media by 8am and on our website.
*Please check with your doctor before starting this or any exercise program.*
Thursday, December 5, 12-1 O&W Rail Trail parking lot Rest Plaus Trailhead
Thursday, December 12, 12-1 Wallkill Valley Rail Trail parking lot at the Women's Studio Workshop.
Thursday, December 19, 12-1 O&W Rail Trail parking lot at the Leggett Road Trailhead.
There will be no walk on December 26.
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News from the Library Foundation | |
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Your Community - Your Library!
In this season of giving thanks, the Stone Ridge Library Foundation offers gratitude to the friends, donors, patrons, staff and volunteers who help the Library continue to be a bustling, vibrant center of community activity.
Thank you for appreciating the many roles our Library plays besides simply lending books. We rely on your support to help:
· Provide free access to books, media and educational programs, databases and services
· Host events that provide diverse learning opportunities and promote inclusion
· Foster a sense of community
· Develop a love of learning in kids
All contributions are important and greatly appreciated. A gift to the Library is a gift to the community!
Show your support by donating today - click here to give!
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Teen Game Night
Friday, December 6
6-8:30pm
Teens 15+
Join us for after hours game night for teens. If you enjoy group games, come and join in the fun. This month we will be playing Arboretum, Liverpool Rummy, Catan and many others.
Snacks will be provided. Registration is required. The library doors will open at 6pm and close at 6:15pm so be here on time for an evening of fun.
Register here
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Holly Day
Wednesday, December 11 3:30-4:30
Join us for our annual holiday story hour: stories, snacks, and crafts.
The program is suitable for all ages and all faiths, a time of joy and celebration. We will be making some star shaped crafts to bring sparkle into this season of celebration.
Please register on our online calendar here.
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Preschool Story Time with Jess and Lindsey!!!
This adorable duo delight preschoolers with stories, songs and crafts during their story times
December 5, 12, 19
10:00 - 11:00 in the children’s room!
Register here
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Tea Time
Book Group
Wednesday, December 11
1pm in the Activity Room
The book for December is The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick Dalton
It's been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home with one goal in mind--find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated. There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as a way to escape the horrific conditions of state housing. While she feels threatened by their presence at first, the friends soon become her newfound family, offering what she hasn't felt since her father was imprisoned: security and hope. Maybe it's time to forget the family secrets buried on the farm and focus on her future. But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honeybee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn't understand, but she can't shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father's missing research. Fighting to uncover the truth could shatter Sasha's fragile security and threaten the lives of her new-found family--or it could save them all. Sasha's journey is a meditation on forgiveness and redemption and a reminder to cherish the beauty that still exists in this fragile world.
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Clio's Muse
History Book Group
No December meeting
Clio's Muse will not be meeting in December. We will be voting on our 2025 reading list.
The list will be emailed to members on Dec. 6 and each member should vote for 8 of the listed books.
Votes must be in by Dec. 13 to be tallied and the January book choice will be announced.
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Mystery
Book Group
Wednesday, December 18
11am in the Activity Room
The book for December is The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee
On Friday the 13th of November, 1903, a famous man was killed on Park Avenue in broad daylight by a stranger. It was neither a political act nor a crime of passion. It was a mistake. The victim was Andrew Haswell Green, the "Father of Greater New York," who shaped the city as we know it. Without him there would be no Central Park, no Metropolitan Museum of Art, no Museum of Natural History, no New York Public Library. His influence was everywhere, yet he died alone, misunderstood, feeling that his whole life might have been, after all, a great mistake. A work of tremendous depth and piercing emotion, The Great Mistake is a portrait of a self-made man--farm boy to urban visionary; the reimagining of a murder investigation that shook the city; and the moving story of a singular individual who found the world closed off to him, and, in spite of all odds, enlarged it.
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The Escape Club
Book Group
Tuesday, December 17
7pm in the Activity room
(an after hours library program)
The book for December is Vanishing Maps by Cristina Garcia
Celia del Pino, the matriarch of a far-flung Cuban family, has watched her descendants spread out across the globe, struggling to make sense of their transnational identities and strained relationships with one another. In Berlin, the charismatic yet troubled Ivanito performs on stage as his drag queen persona, while being haunted by the ghost of his mother. Pilar Puente, adrift in Los Angeles, is a struggling sculptor and the single mother of a young son. In Moscow, Ivanito’s cousin Irina has become the wealthy owner of a lingerie company, but she remains deeply lonely in the wake of her parents’ deaths and her estrangement from her Cuban heritage. Meanwhile, in Havana, Celia prepares to reunite with her lost lover, Gustavo, and wonders whether age and the decades spent apart have altered their bond.
Cut off from their Cuban roots, yet still feeling the island’s ineluctable pull, Ivanito and his extended family try to reimagine where—and with whom—they belong. Over the course of a momentous year, each will grapple with their histories as they are pulled to Berlin for a final, explosive reunion.
Set twenty years after the events in Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina García’s new novel is an epic tale of family, devotion, and the timeless search for home.
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The Morbid History Book Group
Monday, December 16
7pm in the Activity room
(an after hours library program)
Silent Night: The Story of the WWI Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub
In the early months of World War I, on Christmas Eve, men on both sides of the trenches laid down their arms and joined in a spontaneous celebration. Despite orders to continue shooting, the unofficial truce spread across the front lines. Even the participants found what they were doing incredible: Germans placed candlelit Christmas trees on trench parapets, warring soldiers sang carols, and men on both sides shared food parcels from home. They climbed from the trenches to meet in "No Man's Land" where they buried the dead, exchanged gifts, ate and drank together, and even played soccer.
Throughout his narrative, Stanley Weintraub uses the stories of the men who were there, as well as their letters and diaries, to illuminate the fragile truce and bring to life this extraordinary moment in time.
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German Conversation Group with Suse Volk
Friday, December 20, 4-5pm
Activity Room
The Stone Ridge Library has expanded our language conversation groups to include a German conversation group which will meet on the third Friday of each month.
Participants should have some background in German language as this is a conversation group meant to improve and brush up skills.
Suse Volk is a native German speaker ready to discuss a variety of topics including culture, travel and food. If you are interested in joining this group please contact Sarah Robertson at: programs@stoneridgelibrary.org
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Tuesday, December 17
1-2 pm - in the Activity Room
Want to brush up or improve your French with a conversation hour? Claudine is a native French speaker, born in Paris and raised in Europe; following a 30 year Government career abroad, she chose Stone Ridge to retire in. Culture, medicine, travels, and anything / everything culinary are favorite subjects-which she would love to share and exchange in French. The program is offered on the third Tuesday of each month. This group is meeting in-person in the Activity Room. Registration is not required. For more information contact Sarah Robertson at: programs@stoneridgelibrary.org.
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*No Meeting in December*
1-2 pm on Zoom
¿Hablas español? If you would like to brush up on your Spanish conversation skills and meet other language lovers in a friendly and stress free environment, come join our class in the activity room or on Zoom, every fourth Monday of the month from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. All levels are welcomed. ¡Hasta entonces!
Francisco Rivera was born and raised in Spanish Harlem in NYC and is a long term resident of Marbletown.
Contact Sarah Robertson at programs@stoneridgelibrary.org to join the group.
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POETRY
with Rosemary Deen
Thursday, December 5 & 19
on Zoom 1:30 - 3:00
Join us for an afternoon of poetry with Rosemary Deen. Poetry meets the first and third Thursday of the month via Zoom.
Please contact Rosemary at rmdeen@gmail.com if you’d like to join the group.
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WRITERS' GROUP
with Cathy Arra
GROUP I:
Monday, December 9 & 23
GROUP II:
Monday, December 2, 16 & 30
4:00-6:30pm in the Activity Room
Two separate writers' groups meet on alternate Mondays at the library, with a maximum of 10 participants in each group. This program is designed for those who are actively writing and publishing work and who want to participate in a structured critical feedback process. Cathy Arra, a poet, writer, and former teacher of English and Writing in the Rondout Valley School District, facilitates the groups. This is not a drop in group. If you are interested in participating, please contact Cathy Arra.
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Every Saturday
10am-noon, in the Activity Room
The Stone Ridge Library Knitters meet every Saturday morning from 10am – 12noon. All ages and experience levels can join us and drop-in knitters are also welcome.
We each bring our own supplies and do our own work, but one of the best things about us is that whatever obstacle or confusion you might encounter, you’re likely to receive as much comment and advice as you need to get where you’re going with a project.
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MAHJONG
Every Tuesday
10am-noon, in the Activity Room
Tuesdays from 10-12 in the library Activity Room. No registration is required. Players must have basic knowledge to play. Everyone is welcome to watch. Beginner lessons will be offered occasionally by a group member at a mutually convenient time. The group is playing with the 2024 card.
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CANASTA
Every Friday
10am-noon, in the Activity Room
The Library has added Canasta to our group game offerings. Our volunteer, Jane, will offer beginners lessons periodically to teach how to play this card game. Our experienced players meet Fridays from 10-12 to play.
Registration is limited.
If you would like to learn how to play contact: programs@stoneridgelibrary.org
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Ordinary Angels
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Blink Twice
Call My Agent
Hotel Portofino
Ridley
Speak No Evil
Strange Darlings
It's A Wonderful Life
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HOW TO ORDER USING THE
ONLINE CATALOG
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Go to stoneridgelibrary.org.
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Click on Search the Catalog.
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Log in is in the top right corner of the page.
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You will need your Library Barcode (on back of your Library Card) and your PIN. (If you don't have a PIN you can set it up yourself.)
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Search for your item.
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Click the Request It button.
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Submit your request.
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Address: 3700 Main Street, PO Box 188
Stone Ridge, NY 12484
Phone: 845-687-7023
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