Forrest Ray 5K 2008 - a great success

The Third Annual Forrest Ray 5K Run/Walk was held this past Saturday, October 11th and was a great success. We had 148 runners and walkers brave the wet, breezy conditions to help support and raise money for our Library. The overall winner, for the third year in a row, was Trey Parker of Wilson Hall. His fellow Barron, Joshua Jennings finished second, and Reid Schwartz was third. Wilson Hall took the school participation plaque, and the Military Squadron/Unit participation plaque went to the 609 ACOMS/AFCENT A60. A complete list of the winners in each category as well as the times for all those who tied a chip to their shoelace can be found at strictlyrunning.com or by clicking on the link on the Library website homepage. Check out our FlickR account as well – also accessible from the Library homepage. There are some great pictures from this year’s race. I had the opportunity to participate in this years 5K and finished 63rd. I’ve got some work to do to prepare for next year. Go ahead and mark it on your calendars – Saturday, October 10th, 2009 @ 9:00 am at the Downtown Library.
Despite the weather, everyone seemed to have a good time. We at the Library are particularly appreciative of the support by all those who participate and volunteer. Very special thanks go out to our presenting sponsor, SAFE Credit Union. We’d also like to thank our other sponsors, Adams Outdoor, BiLo Charities, Body By Sue, Central Carolina Technical College, Chick-Fil-A, 1895 Inn Savannah, Friends of the Sumter County Library, Kiwanis Club of Sumter, Logistics Officer Association, Piggly Wiggly, Sumter County Active Lifestyles, Sumter Packaging, Thompson Industrial, and the YMCA.
Special thanks go out to all the volunteers who help this event come together each year. Thanks to the members of the race committee who meet throughout the spring, summer and early fall to make sure every T is crossed and every I dotted. Thanks to Girl Scout Troops 2586 and 2250 for being at the water stations and cheering on the runners – their enthusiasm and high sprits contribute to the race every year. The USC Fire Ants softball teams have helped out the last couple of years – taking on the very important task of helping direct runners and walkers on the race route. Sumter City and County Law Enforcement helped direct traffic – many, many thanks for your support. Palmer Memorial Chapel provided covering – especially appreciated on a rainy day. The Friends of the Library also helped out in many ways – filling race bags (with help from the Girl Scouts!), taking care of intersections, and helping out in many different ways before and during the race. The staff of the Sumter County Library deserves a special hand for going above and beyond their regular responsibilities to collect coupons, distribute posters, put together displays, serve on the race committee, and come in on their day off to volunteer for race day.
Many different people and organizations helped out by providing materials for the “goody” bags we have for participants in the 5K. We received items from our local Armed Services Recruiters, Sumter County Active Lifestyles, and Runner’s World. Coupons were donated by Pizza Hut, Baskin Robbins, Zaxby’s, Chick-Fil-A, Tranquil Journey Health & Wellness Spa, Best of Season’s, Brick Street Coffee Break, Mr. P’s Car Wash, Foo Garden, Twin Dragon, Angels Mexican Restaurant, Special Teas on Main, Hibachi Grill, Hardees, Osaka, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Busters, Palmetto Subs and Waffle House. We were able to raffle items donated by Baker’s Sweets, Mary Ann’s Deli, Ryan’s, and the Tuomey Foundation.
Special mention needs to be made of the Sumter Riding Club – the Sumter Easy Riders and Sumter Chain Gang for putting on a 30 mile charity ride in conjunction with the 5K. Thanks for helping support the Library!
Money raised from this year’s Forrest Ray 5K will continue the vision Forrest Ray had for our Library to provide the best possible services and programs we can in the best possible facilities. This year we will use the funds raised to purchase materials for our Children’s Department at all Library locations. The Forrest Ray 5K is a great community event, a great event for the Library, and this year it is helping to lend a hand to the youngest members of our community.
Again – thanks for helping your Library.
Robert Harden - Library Director

Fall Library Happenings

There are many special activities and programs coming up at your Library during the next few weeks and months. First and foremost is the running of the third annual Forrest Ray 5K Run/Walk Celebration. This event will be held on October 11, 2008 at the Main Library @ 111 N. Harvin Street. This year’s route will begin and end at the Downtown Library, winding through downtown Sumter and several historic neighborhoods. A map of the route and registration details are available on the Library website @ www.midnet.sc.edu/sumtercls. You can also register at http://www.ymcasumter.org/ or http://www.strictlyrunning.com/ . Registration on race day will begin at 8:00 am and the start time for the 5K is 9:00 am.

Fundraisers are an important way for the Library to raise money to support programs and services. Money raised from this year’s 5K will be used to purchase materials for Children’s Services. Our Children’s collection recently received a boost from a donation made by the Junior Welfare League of Sumter. Their generous contribution has allowed us to place many new titles on the shelves. We are also fortunate to receive frequent donations of children’s books from the Kiwanis.

Our Friends’ group is very active and are an invaluable help to the Library. We were recently able to purchase a Document Camera with help from the Friends. Our Children’s Librarians are very excited about this acquisition, and are looking forward to enhancing their Storytime presentations with this device.

Speaking of the Friends, the Annual Book Sale is scheduled for early November. Thursday, November 6th will be the Friends Preview Night (memberships will be available at the door for those who would like to join) and continue through November 7th, 8th, and 9th. The second weekend of the sale will be on November 14th, 15th, and 16th. We will be at the Sumter Mall again this year. Buy early and buy often. Not only will you be supporting the Friends, you will find excellent books and other items at prices that can’t be beat.

We have a film series that will begin on Tuesday, September 23rd. This falls series is entitled “Not Just for Baby Boomers – If you’ve only seen it on TV, you haven’t really seen it”. These will be shown on every other Tuesday (Election Day excepted) through December 16th. The series kicks off with A Hard Days Night, and other movies scheduled are A Streetcar Named Desire (Marlon Brando (Stella!) made his mark with this film, but it’s Vivien Leigh’s Blanche DuBois that is one of the finest performances in movie history), Dial M for Murder, Rocky (Adrian!) Harold and Maude, and Pocket Full of Miracles. Show time is 5:30 pm in the Downtown Meeting Room.

There is also a Teen Movie Night scheduled for Thursday, October 16th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. This is being presented in conjunction with Chestnut Oaks and Bates Middle Schools.

The South Carolina Bar has been offering a series of clinics on legal issues. There are two remaining – Wills, Estates & Probate on September 25th and Real Estate Issues on October 2nd. Each session begins at 6:00 pm at the Downtown Library in the Main Meeting Room.

Carl Winters “The Kalimba King” will be performing at the Downtown Library on Saturday, September 27th, 3:30 pm. A kalimba is a thumb piano fashioned from African gourds. The Kalimba King will put on a fifty minute program featuring spirituals, Civil Rights/Freedom songs, jazz, and blues.

Our Wesmark Branch Library has recently begun a Book Club. They meet the first Sunday of every month at the Wesmark Library from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. The next meeting is scheduled for October 5th, and Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay is the book that will be featured. The Last Promise by Richard Paul Evans will be discussed on November 2nd, and The Covenant by Naomi Ragen on December 7th.

The Wesmark Branch has also scheduled a Halloween program for October 31st and a special program featuring “Benjamin Franklin” on November 10th at 6:30. The Downtown Library is planning a program on the subject of South Carolina Native Americans for Saturday, November 8th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm and a “Read Along and Sing Along with Santa” for Saturday, December 6th from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.

Please call the Library at 773-7273 (Downtown) 469-8110 (Wesmark) or 775-7132 (South Sumter) for more information on any of these events.

Robert Harden

Summer Reading Program

No flu shot is needed to Catch the Reading Bug -- the theme of this year's Summer Vacation Reading program. Designed for children ages 3 - 12 years of age, an Early Bird Sign-up will be on Thursday, May 22 during our SC-ETV's Meet & Greet Clifford the Big Red Dog event from 10 am - 12 noon at the Downtown Main Library. If unable to attend, registration officially will begin on June 4 at all branches, and the annual program will run through August 6.The purpose of Summer Vacation Reading is twofold -- to retain the skills from one school year to the next, and to instill a lifelong love of reading. For ten books read, participating children will receive a prize, and for twenty books read, children will receive a Reading Certificate of accomplishment. Many mini specials are planned throughout the nine weeks of the program; so please register and follow along with the Calendar of Events which comes with the registration packet. Happy summer reading!
Karen Edgar

April @ the Library

We have some very interesting events scheduled at the Library for April, which is BTW, Jazz Appreciation Month. The Library collection has several books, CDs, and DVDs on the subject worth checking out. April 13-19 is National Library Week. I'd like to suggest two possible ways to observe National Library Week. First, think of all the different services that libraries provide. Now, think of a world without libraries and without those services. Personally, libraries have been an important part of my life since my parents first took me to the old Carnegie Library on Liberty Street when I was a little boy. I've loved libraries ever since and think the world would be a poorer place without them. This year's theme for National Library Week is "Join the circle of knowledge @ your library" and we certainly have a wide variety of services to help you do just that. One new service to checkout is SchoolRooms. You can access SchoolRooms from the Library website. It is a new K-12 online multimedia discovery place for South Carolina students. SchoolRooms has been designed to provide a "Best of the Web" approach to internet and database searching. The content has been selected by over 200 teachers and librarians. It is possible to search 3 million educator-selected pages in 71 subject areas with content aligned to curriculum standards. The SchoolRooms project is being developed by the South Carolina State Library with funding provided by IMLS and LSTA.
The Library will host El dia de los ninos y el dia de los libros (Day of the child, day of the book) on April 19th at the Downtown Library from 3-5. Check with our Children's Department for further details. April 19th is also the day for the Festival on the Avenue. The festival will begin with a parade from Bartlette Street featuring J. David Weeks as Grand Marshall. The event plans to showcase many local talents and will have singing, dancing, poetry, vendors with local cuisines, arts and crafts, a carnival, competitions and the Sumter County Library Bookmobile will also be on hand. The schedule for that day is 10:00 to 4:00.
On April 23rd, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm at the Downtown Library, along with the Wofford College Troubadour Series, we will be presenting a program featuring the music of classical guitarist Andres Segovia and the poetry of Carl Sandburg. Jhon Akers will be the featured performer. Light refreshments will be served at the conclusion of the concert and attendees will have an opportunity to meet the artist.
To help kick off the Sumter Scottish Fair and Celtic Festival, the movie Braveheart will be shown at 6:30 pm on April 24th at the Downtown Library. There are also some interesting items on display at the Downtown Library in coordination with this festival.

Robert

Author Luncheon

The Friends of the Sumter County Library held their annual author luncheon on March 14th at the Sunset Country Club. This years event featured mystery writer Kathryn R. Wall, who not only stepped in on very short notice, but made the trip to Sumter while dealing with a sudden illness in her family. Words cannot express our gratitude - not only for her making the trip at all, but also for giving a very informative and entertaining presentation. Kathryn Wall is the author of seven novels (number eight is coming out in April) set in the Low Country of South Carolina. Her heroine, Lydia Baynard Simpson Tanner lives in Hilton Head and has a peculiar gift for getting herself, friends, and loved ones involved in a series of suspenseful and dangerous situations. The books are very entertaining and contain a great deal of local color. Ms. Wall knows her venue very well, particularly impressive considering she retired to Hilton Head after a career as an accountant in Ohio. Human nature is human nature wherever you are, to paraphrase Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, and Kathryn Wall has keen insight in that area. Her characters are very well developed. Although it isn't necessary to read the books in the sequence they were published, it is enjoyable to start at the beginning and see how the characters change and develop from one book to the next.
I initiated an interesting discussion at the luncheon on the subject of Bay Tanner's love life, specifically her French boyfriend Alain Darnay. An attendee took exception, thinking that I didn't like the character because he was French. I explained that my beef with Darnay wasn't his nationality, but that I just didn't think he was "right" for Bay and that on again/off again detecting partner Erik Whiteside would be a better match. Pick up a Bay Tanner mystery and decide for yourself. You might even think Red Tanner, Bay's brother-in-law, is the best match of the three. Did I mention Bay's life is rather complicated?
The Friends Author Luncheon committee led by Dotty Lyles did a wonderful job. The flowers were beautiful, the table arrangements were perfectly in keeping with the theme of the Bay Tanner mysteries, and the menu was perfect. Thanks also to luncheon committee members Betsy Acken, Elaine Cameron, Rose Marie Newman and Nancy Wilson.
Robert

Public Library Appreciation Day

Do you appreciate your public library? The South Carolina General Assembly has passed a concurrent resolution declaring January 31, 2008 be Public Library Appreciation Day in South Carolina. This concurrent resolution concludes by stating, "Be it further resolved that the people of South Carolina avail themselves of the many rich services provided by our public libraries to meet their educational, informational, and recreational needs." It is the sincere hope of the entire staff of the Sumter County Library that we are meeting the needs of our community as outlined in the proceeding statement. And we hope you have been showing your appreciation of the Library by availing yourself of our many services. Perhaps you've stopped in to pick up a tax form. Federal forms are here and state forms should be on the way shortly. Maybe you came by to read a newspaper, read or checkout a magazine, checkout the latest bestseller or audio book. Or a DVD. You may have gone online to surf the internet, check your e-mail, fill out a job application, or follow the latest political happenings on websites or blogs. It could be that one of the junior members of your family attended storytime or one of the senior members checked out a title from our large print collection. You could have downloaded an audio book or used an online database. Maybe you attended a film, took one of our computer classes, used one or our meeting and study rooms, or went to a program. We have a great deal to offer and we certainly appreciate the support you have given and continue to give your public library. Please make sure to avail yourself of these and all our other services.
Robert Harden/Director