Skaters return to the Town Pond after 2 years!

Photo & Caption by Eric Anderson

I hope that the first bits of 2025 have been treating you well. I’ve always felt that February was a special time in library land. As we all deal with freezing temperatures, snow, ice, and illness nothing feels better than hunkering down with a good book, hot beverage and warm blanket. Likewise, when we start to feel stir crazy and need a good something to pull us out of the house back to a sense of community, the library programs provide some much needed relief. The library staff feel grateful to serve our community in these ways…so pop in: say “hi”, grab a book to hunker down with, attend a program to remind yourself that our neighbors are still out there. Growth, learning, and community are gentle and quiet this time of year, but we are here for all of it!

Some items of note as we go into February: Check out the Candidates Night being held on February 20^th and dig into some local history with an author visit from Amanda Grappone Osmer (owner of Grappone Automotive). The children’s programming is robust with lots to choose from. Bring the kids in for a story time or special after school program!  

If you need anything at all, please reach out to me. I have had the great pleasure of meeting so many of you. I love a good chat so come in and say hi!

Warm Wishes,

Kaitlin Camidge, Library Director

"Leo the Lion" Reaches New Heights

Photo by Eric Anderson

"In the photo, Jim Dimick is at the right. Jim is the one who constructed the pedestal that is designed to support the weight of "Leo the Lion." The pedestal is constructed with casters so that it can be easily moved around and proudly displayed. It is estimated that "Leo the Lion" may be 75 years of age or older at the time of his retirement just a couple of months ago." - Eric Anderson, Chair of the Bow Heritage Commission

Notary Services at Baker Free Library

The Library is excited to now be offering notary services!

Walk-Ins are welcome, but calling ahead is strongly encouraged to ensure notary is available. Notary services will be free of charge and will only be available inside of our building.

For more information, feel free to reach out to Kaitlin via email.

Seasons of Reading

A Year-Long Reading Challenge for Teens and Adults!

Sign up at the library to receive your challenge, and work your way through a new set of reading prompts each season. Keep an eye on our Events & Programs Calendar throughout the year for meet-ups and events relating to the challenge. Learn more on our website!

2025 Visions of Bow Calendar

Only 15 left! Purchase today at the discounted price of $8.

Baker Free Library is back with our second annual calendar fundraiser! Featuring exclusive photos from Eric Anderson of unique spots around Town, this year's calendar is a stunning collection of local landmarks.

All proceeds will directly benefit Baker Free Library.

100 Acres More or Less by David Bundy

Purchase today for $20!

Baker Free Library was established in 1914... but did you know that was almost 200 years after the Town of Bow was first founded?

Back in the 60s, David Bundy published a book titled '100 Acres More or Less' as a way to share the Town's rich history and backstory, and we are so excited to announce that this book is now available for purchase at Baker Free Library! All proceeds will directly benefit the Bow Heritage Commission, and support them in their mission of preserving Bow's past.

For more information, visit the library's circulation desk. Books are only available while supplies last.

Learn to Play Ukulele!

Workshop presented by Southern NH Ukulele Group

Saturday, February 15 | 11am

Want to learn a new instrument? In this workshop for children, teens and families, you’ll learn chords and strumming techniques for the ukulele! We’ll even get the chance to play a few songs together, after just one lesson. Presented by Southern NH Ukulele Group, this workshop is ideal for interested learners aged 6 and up. Ukuleles will be provided!

Registration is required.

Glow-in-the-Dark Miniature Golf

Monday, February 24 | 11am-2pm

Challenge your friends and family to a round of miniature golf, right in the library’s Lower Level. Play through all 9 holes at your own pace. And the best part: each hole is lit with LED's! Tee times will be available between 11AM and 2PM, and registration is not required. All ages welcome.



After School Programs

Art • Lab

Every Other Wednesday | 3:30pm

A bi-weekly art program for artists and creators in Grades 3-6. Take part in sensory, process art, and engineering activities designed to inspire our creativity and expand our knowledge of celebrated artists and their techniques. Activities may include mixed media projects and painting, so come prepared to get messy. Recommended for students in Grades 3-6. Registration is required for each session you plan to attend.

Please register for each session.

Ready Readers

Every Other Monday | 3:00pm

This bi-weekly program is a "Big Kid" storytime, designed for storytime graduates and emerging or independent readers in Grades K-2. Explore new books with a specially chosen read-aloud at each meeting, followed by activities designed to spark creativity and build early literacy skills. Recommended for Grades K-2, in the company of a parent or caregiver. Please register for every session you plan to attend.

Please register for each session.

Little Makers

Every Other Thursday | 3:00pm

A bi-weekly program for our youngest messy makers! Take part in sensory and process art activities designed to inspire your little one's creativity and curiosity. Activities may include mixed media projects and painting, so come prepared to get messy. Recommended for children in Pre-K through Grade 2, in the company of a parent or caregiver. Registration is required to reserve your child's place. Please register for every session you wish to attend.

Please register for each session.

Storytimes

Preschool Storytime

Every Tuesday, through February 18 | 10:30am

Encourage school readiness with a storytime for active bodies and minds! Explore interactive stories, songs, and activities that help to promote early literacy learning while addressing attention, coordination and motor development. Each storytime includes stories, songs and movement activities and ends with open play time, allowing children and their families to socialize. Recommended for Ages 3 - 5.

*Registration is required to reserve your child's space. The winter session will run from January 14 - February 18, 2025.

Register Here.

Family Storytime

Every Wednesday, through February 19 | 10:30am

This multi-age storytime is perfect for families & siblings. Explore stories, songs, and activities that help to promote early literacy learning while addressing attention and motor development for both toddler and preschool aged children. Each storytime ends with open play time, allowing children and their families to meet and socialize. Recommended for Ages 2 - 5.

*Registration is required to reserve your child's space. The winter session will run from January 15 - February 19, 2025.

Register Here.

Toddler Storytime

Every Thursday, through February 20 | 10:30am

Explore a new topic each week with stories, songs and rhymes designed to spark your child’s imagination and create the foundations for early literacy. Each storytime ends with open play time, allowing families to meet, play and socialize. Select sessions will include craft and/or sensory activities. Recommended for Ages 18 Months - 3 Years; siblings welcome.

*Registration is required to reserve your child's space. The winter session will run from January 16 - February 20, 2025.

Register Here.

Adult Programs

Board Game Night

Wednesday, February 5 | 5:30pm

Join us on the first Wednesday of every month to celebrate the library’s new assortment of board games! Drop by for some snacks and socializing while exploring the library’s new collection. Feel free to bring your own favorites or check out one of ours!

Register here.

Grappone Automotive: The Founding

Thursday, February 6 | 5:30pm

Amanda Grappone Osmer is the owner of Grappone Automotive, and a member of the company's founding family. Amanda is a 2024 TIME Dealer of the Year Award nominee and a TEDx speaker, as well as a life-time lover of New Hampshire. Grappone Automotive remains an integral part of the community, and has been since 1924. Learn about Grappone's history, and Amanda's great grandparents who immigrated to the New Hampshire in the 1920s. Amanda will be bringing copies of Grappone Automotive: The Founding for purchase for $15.

Register here.

Craft Club

Tuesday, February 18 | 6pm

Craft Club is back! Meetings will be held on the third Tuesday of every month in the Merrimack County Savings Bank Room. You must be registered ahead of time to attend, as space and supplies are limited. 

Presented by our very own artist, Christina, this month's session will focus on using the translucent quality of watercolor and adding design and details in pen!

February's session of Craft Club is full, but we will have a pop-up session of craft club available on Thursday, February 20th from 2-4pm! Registration opens on Saturday, February 1st. Please register here. Feel free to bring your own painting supplies to the pop-up session!

Tuesday, March 18 | 6pm

You must be registered ahead of time to attend, as space and supplies are limited. 

In March we will be making decorative book pages! Feel free to bring your own book to paint, but books will be supplied during this session as well.

Registration for this session will open on Wednesday, February 19th at 10am,

and will be available here.

Meet the Candidates Night

Thursday, February 20 | 6pm

Baker Free Library is pleased to host our annual Meet the Candidates Night. Join us as we welcome those running for elected office in the Town of Bow to introduce themselves to the community.

During the first part of the evening, candidates will have five minutes to address attendees with a prepared speech or talking points. After each candidate has had a turn to speak, we will break for a brief intermission, and then return for the Q&A segment. Members of the public will then be invited to address any of the attending candidates with their questions. 

Meet the Candidates Night is not live streamed, but will be recorded and uploaded to Baker Free Library's YouTube Channel following the event.

*As a reminder to candidates who have filed: responses for the Candidate Information Packet will only be accepted through February 7th*

Book Groups

Book Talk at BFL

Tuesday, February 11

12:30PM & 6:30PM

Book Talk is BFL's long-running monthly book club. If you love to read, enjoy talking about books, and are willing to read outside your comfort zone, join us! Two meetings are offered each month for your convenience.

February Selection:

Dark Tide by

Stephen Puleo

White Rock Book Group

Tuesday, February 18

1:00PM

Enjoy great books and even better conversations with this extension of the Book Talk book club, offered each month at White Rock Senior Living Center. This group meets on the third Tuesday of each month at White Rock.

February Selection:

Dark Tide by

Stephen Puleo



Whodunits

Tuesday, March 4

1:00PM



Love mysteries? Join the Whodunits to sleuth through a new one every month! This mystery-exclusive book club meets at White Rock Senior Living on the first Tuesday of every month. Members select the next book.

March Selection:

Motherless Brooklyn by

Jonathan Letham

Copies of Book Club books are available at the Circulation Desk at the Library.

For more information about joining one of the book groups, contact

Amy Bain at amy@bakerfreelib.org.

Book descriptions adapted from Goodreads.

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them--and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them--the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart--or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.

Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she's not the only person looking for someone that they've lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.

On the outside they were the golden family with the perfect life. On the inside they built the perfect lie.

A young nanny who plunged to her death, or was she pushed? A nine-year-old girl who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. A lawyer whose job it is to uncover who in the family is a victim and who is a murderer. But how can you find out the truth when everyone here is lying?

Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny - in the midst of her parent's bitter divorce - and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella's mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help.

Artwork by Zwelo Mnisi Weeks of Nashua, NH

Baker Free Library will be closed Monday, February 17th in observance of

Presidents' Day.



Photo by Eric Anderson.

Recreation Returns to Turee Pond

Photo by Eric Anderson.

On January 11th, citizens took to the ice during the first snow storm of 2025!

There was biking, fishing, skating, dog-walking, skiing, four-wheeling, hockey, grilling, sight-seeing, and photographing!

Baker Free Library Room Reservations

BFL staff would like to remind patrons to keep an eye on the forecast and check the library’s website, social media pages, or WMUR for closings or delayed openings. Additionally, if you have reserved a meeting room outside of the library’s regular hours during winter weather advisories, please look for an email or phone call from the Library Director. In the event the library is going to be closed for the day, all room reservations will be cancelled, as the parking lot and sidewalks will not be safe for the public if we are not open. Your safety is our top priority!

Bow Rotary Club

Bow Rotary presents scholarships to 10 students.

Ten students received scholarships from Bow Rotary at the January 3 meeting. 

The 10 students are Maya Clough, Aiden Ciminesi, Juliette Tarsa, Julie Vose, Isabella Cannon, Alden Betterly, Sydney Ferland, Rorie Cochrane, Joseph McDowell and Liam Wells.

Six of the recipients attended the meeting in person and two attended on Zoom. All the recipients provided updates to the club, talking about life at college. Many of them are active in sports, clubs and volunteering. 

Overall, Bow Rotary awarded $20,000 in scholarships. Two recipients, Ferland and Wells, have previously received scholarships from the Club.

Bow Rotary provides scholarships for college, trade school and nontraditional learning to deserving high school graduates from Bow High School as well as to Bow and Dunbarton residents who attend private high schools. 

Pictured from left are Scholarship Committee Chair Mike Griffin, Julie Vose, Maya Clough, Aiden Ciminesi, Alden Betterly, Rorie Cochrane, Isabella Cannon and Bow Rotary President Gerry Carrier.

Photo by Eric Anderson.



Camperships application deadline February 17

Bow Rotary supports summer and special camperships for Bow and Dunbarton families who need assistance paying for these programs. The form to apply can be found on the Bow Rotary website under the Scholarships/Grants menu. The deadline for submission is February 17.

2025 Bow Rotary Club Foundation Scholarship Program

The Rotary Club of Bow annual Foundation Scholarship Applications are now available. The Foundation will be awarding a total of $23,000 in post-secondary scholarships and $5,000 in camperships in 2025.

The scholarship program is for graduating high school seniors who either attended Bow High School or who are Bow or Dunbarton students who attended other area high schools. Bow High School tuition students must be from a town/city either without a Rotary club or with a Rotary club that doesn’t offer college scholarships.

There are three different types of scholarships available: Traditional for students who are currently a graduating high school or homeschooled senior or have been a student attending college within the last four years; vocational school or certificate program scholarships for students who wish to attend a technical/vocational school two-year program or wish to attend a certificate program; and an adult scholarship for older adults, who have not attended school in the last four or more years.

The applications are available in Fillable PDF format for download from the Bow Rotary website under the Scholarships/Grants menu. The deadline is 3 p.m. April 7.

Rotary's Annual 4-Way Test Speech Contest:

The Rotary Club of Bow conducts an annual public speaking contest to challenge high school students to develop their public-speaking skills and to explore how they make decisions that affect other people. The basis of the contest is Rotary’s “Four-Way Test,” a tool to encourage ethical decision making. Bow Rotary awards cash prizes to the top three speakers and sends the winner on to compete against winners from other clubs in our district, which includes much of southern New Hampshire and Vermont.

The contest will be held in person at the Baker Free Library on March 19 at 6:30 p.m. Applications are due by 3 p.m. on Monday, March 10. Contest details and an application form can be found here.

Bow Rotary Club President, Gerry Carrier, presents BFL Director Kaitlin Camidge with a book in appreciation for her presentation to the Bow Rotary Club on January 31st, 2025.

The book, in turn, that is signed by Kaitlin will be given to the Bow Elementary School Library to support the Club's weekly "literacy program."

Kaitlin Camidge and Gerry Carrier

Photo by Eric Anderson

Bow Young at Heart

Bring your own lunch at 11:30 with the club providing dessert. Presentations begin at 12:30. For more information about the club and joining us for our meetings or how to become a member contact Peter Cherici at (603) 774-7682 or email at fairfield_a@hotmail.com

February 26, 2025 | 11:30 am - 2:30 pm

Andy Bullock, Director of the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum will give a talk about the museum’s history and types of exhibits. 

April 9, 2025 | 11:30 am - 2:30 pm

Alan Hoffman will discuss Lafayette’s Farwell Tour of the United States in 1824 and Lafayette’s role in the American Revolution impacted the United States and New Hampshire. 

Town Updates

The Town of Bow has worked diligently in providing up to the minute notification of all that is happening in the community. In order to stay informed, visit the website Town of Bow or follow on Facebook @bownewhampshire.