Altamont Library Notes for Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Last week, the Altamont Free Library celebrated our 23nd annual Library Lights gazebo lighting ceremony in Orsini Park. The purpose of Library Lights is to take some time at the beginning of the holiday season to remember friends, family members, and other loved ones and to honor their memory with a light on the Orsini Park gazebo.
This year, we had a near-record number of honorees, whose names were read aloud at the ceremony. Thank you to all of our friends who contributed, and to those of you who joined us in Orsini Park last Friday. A full list of this year’s honorees may be found on our website at AltamontFreeLibrary.org.
I’d especially like to thank Mayor Dineen, Jeff Moller, Larry Adams, and the team at the Village Department of Public Works for all of their invaluable help in making a space in the park for setting up the lights, as well as to Dan Capuano, Paul Scilipoti, Amanda Beedle, and Deborah Katz for helping with the reading of names. Thank you all!
Holiday hours
Please note that Altamont Free Library will be closing at 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 24, and closed on Saturday, Dec. 25. Looking further ahead, we’ll also be closing at 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 31, and closed on Saturday, Jan. 1. Happy holidays to all!
Amazon Smile
Here’s a great, easy, cost-free way to support the library: If you do some of your holiday shopping on Amazon, please consider going to Smile.Amazon.com (instead of just regular old Amazon.com).
Everything on the website will be exactly the same as usual, but you’ll have the opportunity to choose the Altamont Free Library as your charity of choice and a portion of your purchase will go to support the library, even though your gifts won’t cost you a penny more than they normally would! (You can do that all year round, if you like, but we just thought we’d mention it now.)
Community Tree
The holidays are coming up fast! I can’t think of a better way to get into the spirit than by decorating a tree!
And this year, we’ll have a doozy of a community holiday tree in Orsini Park. Pick up a blank ornament from the library, bring it home, and decorate it in your and your family’s own unique style, and hang it on the big community holiday tree out in the park (the one in the middle in the park, not the one in the gazebo).
Then on Sunday, Dec. 19, at the Altamont Festival of Lights, join us as we light it up! Thanks to Leanne Royer for coordinating the ornaments, and to Altamont Community Tradition for sponsoring this fun holiday activity.
Quilt raffle
As I just mentioned, the Altamont Celebration of Lights (what we used to call the Victorian Holiday Celebration) will take place on Sunday, Dec. 19. It will be full of fun activities, including a pet parade, Orsini Park tree-lighting, wreath raffle, and an extra-special evening car parade featuring a jolly old friend on a fire truck at the end. (Sadly, there won’t be a Santa Train this year.)
All of these activities are put on by our friends at Altamont Community Tradition. In order to raise money for ACT, so that the not-for-profit group can continue putting on wonderful events like this, the annual springtime park cleanup, and Strawberry Social, we’re helping to raffle off an antique quilt from the 1930s donated by Sally Dague and fixed up by the amazing Train Station Quilters.
Tickets may be purchased at the library on the day of the event for $1 each or six for $5. The lucky winner will be drawn at the Celebration of Lights. Please help support this important civic organization and take a chance at winning a one-of-a-kind heirloom at the same time.