Canadian Cultural Diversity

Travel through Canada with four critically acclaimed books that make manifest Canada’s cultural diversity.  The Vermont Humanities Reading & Discussion will be facilitated by Rachael Cohen.  Rachael has been a freelance editor specializing in environmental and regional studies, a teacher of writing, literature, and natural history, a caller of contra dances, and a farm hand. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English from Cornell University and a Master of Science in Environmental Education from the Audubon Expedition Institute/Lesley University. When she’s not teaching for the University of Michigan’s New England Literature Program, held each spring at a camp in New Hampshire, she’s a caretaker in southern Vermont.

• Emily Carr, Klee Wyck (1 February 2025 - first Saturday only this month)  Klee Wyck is Canadian artist Emily Carr’s memoir. Through short sketches, the artist tells of her experiences among First Nations people and cultures on British Columbia’s west coast. The book won the 1941 Governor General’s Award and occupies an important place in Canadian literature.

• Alistair MacLeod, Island (8 March 2025)  The sixteen exquisitely crafted stories in Island prove Alistair MacLeod to be a master. Quietly, precisely, he has created a body of work that is among the greatest to appear in English in the last fifty years.  A book-besotted patriarch releases his only son from the obligations of the sea. A father provokes his young son to violence when he reluctantly sells the family horse. A passionate girl who grows up on a nearly deserted island turns into an ever-wistful woman when her one true love is felled by a logging accident. A dying young man listens to his grandmother play the old Gaelic songs on her ancient violin as they both fend off the inevitable. The events that propel MacLeod’s stories convince us of the importance of tradition, the beauty of the landscape, and the necessity of memory.

When: Ja 30th

4-5PM

Join staff from LRSWMD for final of a three-part winter book discussion series.

The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and our Health – and a Vision for Change by: Annie Leonard

Overview: A classic exposé in company with An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring, The Story of Stuff expands on the celebrated documentary exploring the threat of overconsumption on the environment, economy, and our health. Leonard examines the “stuff” we use everyday, offering a galvanizing critique and steps for a changed planet.

Come with a mug or without, we’ll fill you up a cup of hot coffee while we talk around the table with each other and build community. Have a particular interest you’d like to discuss with the group? Bring it! We talk birds, fitness and anything else that builds excitement and connection within our fabulous community. All ages welcome, all encouraged to attend!

Interested in finding out more about your family's history? Want to know if your family's stories have some truth to them? Stuck on a particular ancestor & don't know where to look next? 

Stop by the Varnum Memorial Library on Wednesdays from 4pm to 5pm to talk & do all things Genealogy with 2 local genealogists with over 50 years combined experience!

This is a drop-in style of meeting, so no need to call for reservations.

Join us for this mini-series workshop and practice, grow and build your creative, written voice! Nancy C., professional reporter, writer and former teacher will facilitate this program and help you building your writer’s toolbox.

This series will meet for the month of January, and possibly February depending upon interest.

Bring yourself and your preferred medium.

Come with a mug or without, we’ll fill you up a cup of hot coffee while we talk around the table with each other and build community. Have a particular interest you’d like to discuss with the group? Bring it! We talk birds, fitness and anything else that builds excitement and connection within our fabulous community. All ages welcome, all encouraged to attend!

Interested in finding out more about your family's history? Want to know if your family's stories have some truth to them? Stuck on a particular ancestor & don't know where to look next? 

Stop by the Varnum Memorial Library on Wednesdays from 4pm to 5pm to talk & do all things Genealogy with 2 local genealogists with over 50 years combined experience!

This is a drop-in style of meeting, so no need to call for reservations.

The Varnum wishes to support all members of our communities in their educational and community-needs, and we would love to hear from you! Please join us as we make space and time to figure out collaboratively how best to support our homeschooling folks.

We will gather to do a small project together and have the space for socialization. Come meet your homeschooling community members!

Please bring your needs, ideas and young ones to create a supportive community for our homeschooling families. The more, the better!

When: January 9th , January 30th , February 20th

4-5PM

Join staff from LRSWMD for this three-part winter book discussion series.

January 9th discussion: Outsmart Waste: The Modern Idea of Garbage and How to Think Our Way Out of It by Tom Szaky

Overview:

Why DOES garbage exist in human society? Why has it become a problem only in the last century? And most importantly, how can we eliminate it, or outsmart the very idea of garbage? Every time we make a purchase, we are essentially voting for the kind of world we want to live in. Szaky shows that by becoming acutely aware of the deeper implications of why we buy, what we buy, when we buy, and what we do with what we’ve bought, we can cast our vote for a waste-free world. And through innovative recycling and creative & upcycling (creating new products from discarded objects), we can transform the waste we can't avoid creating from useless waste into a useful resource-as it is in nature. We do not have to turn the Earth into a cosmic trash can. We as individuals have the power to turn this situation around. And, as Szaky demonstrates, there is a use for every kind of garbage-cigarette butts, toothbrushes, pens, packaging, you name it. After reading this mind-expanding book, you will never think of garbage the same way again.

Come with a mug or without, we’ll fill you up a cup of hot coffee while we talk around the table with each other and build community. Have a particular interest you’d like to discuss with the group? Bring it! We talk birds, fitness and anything else that builds excitement and connection within our fabulous community. All ages welcome, all encouraged to attend!

Join us for this mini-series workshop and practice, grow and build your creative, written voice! Nancy C., professional reporter, writer and former teacher will facilitate this program and help you building your writer’s toolbox.

This series will meet for the month of January, and possibly February depending upon interest.

Bring yourself and your preferred medium.

Canadian Cultural Diversity

Travel through Canada with four critically acclaimed books that make manifest Canada’s cultural diversity.  The Vermont Humanities Reading & Discussion will be facilitated by Rachael Cohen.  Rachael has been a freelance editor specializing in environmental and regional studies, a teacher of writing, literature, and natural history, a caller of contra dances, and a farm hand. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English from Cornell University and a Master of Science in Environmental Education from the Audubon Expedition Institute/Lesley University. When she’s not teaching for the University of Michigan’s New England Literature Program, held each spring at a camp in New Hampshire, she’s a caretaker in southern Vermont.

• Roy McGregor, Canoe Lake (11 January 2025)  A troubled American woman travels to a small Ontario town, determined to find the mother she has never known. As she searches through dusty records and stirs up old memories among those around her, three young people emerge from the mists of the past . . . a beautiful woman named Jenny, a shy local boy named Russell, and a dark-eyed painter named Tom, who changes the course of Jenny and Russell’s lives. Historical reality and conjecture are skillfully interwoven with intrigue and suspense as these three move unwittingly toward tragedy.
  

• Emily Carr, Klee Wyck (1 February 2025 - first Saturday only this month)  Klee Wyck is Canadian artist Emily Carr’s memoir. Through short sketches, the artist tells of her experiences among First Nations people and cultures on British Columbia’s west coast. The book won the 1941 Governor General’s Award and occupies an important place in Canadian literature.

• Alistair MacLeod, Island (8 March 2025)  The sixteen exquisitely crafted stories in Island prove Alistair MacLeod to be a master. Quietly, precisely, he has created a body of work that is among the greatest to appear in English in the last fifty years.  A book-besotted patriarch releases his only son from the obligations of the sea. A father provokes his young son to violence when he reluctantly sells the family horse. A passionate girl who grows up on a nearly deserted island turns into an ever-wistful woman when her one true love is felled by a logging accident. A dying young man listens to his grandmother play the old Gaelic songs on her ancient violin as they both fend off the inevitable. The events that propel MacLeod’s stories convince us of the importance of tradition, the beauty of the landscape, and the necessity of memory.

Norah’s Beads

January 11, 2024

10:30-2pm

*Due to the nature of the subject matter, and the dexterity required for beading, please use your discretion as to whom will attend*

Norah loved beautiful stones and crystals. She collected them, wore them as bracelets and necklaces, and kept notes on the healing properties of her favorite stones.

After losing Norah to suicide, creating these bracelets began as a way to remember and feel connected to her.

Each bracelet is made using Norah’s favorite stones, and each one contains an ‘N’ bead to remember her by.

The process of making and sharing Norah Beads bracelets has sparked conversations in our community about mental illness, suicide prevention, wellness, and resiliency. We hope that these conversations will be a path toward breaking the silence and ending the stigma around mental illness. 

We hope that each bracelet will be a reminder to be kind to yourselves and each other, to spread love and hope, to keep going, and to know that even in the darkest times, there are people who wish nothing more than to help you find your way back into the light. 

Please join us as Susan, Norah’s Mother, guides us through this thoughtful process of creating your own unique reminder and one you can create to gift to someone else.

Come with a mug or without, we’ll fill you up a cup of hot coffee while we talk around the table with each other and build community. Have a particular interest you’d like to discuss with the group? Bring it! We talk birds, fitness and anything else that builds excitement and connection within our fabulous community. All ages welcome, all encouraged to attend!

Join us for this mini-series workshop and practice, grow and build your creative, written voice! Nancy C., professional reporter, writer and former teacher will facilitate this program and help you building your writer’s toolbox.

This series will meet for the month of January, and possibly February depending upon interest.

Bring yourself and your preferred medium.

Join us for this final part in a new mini-series presented by Lamoille Home Health and Hospice. This meeting will be Memory Impairment and Communication. Promoting effective communication to your loved ones.

- Presented by Jessica McDonald, SLP

No registration required; All are welcome!

The Varnum wishes to support all members of our communities in their educational and community-needs, and we would love to hear from you! Please join us as we make space and time to figure out collaboratively how best to support our homeschooling folks.

We will gather to do a small project together and have the space for socialization. Come meet your homeschooling community members!

Please bring your needs, ideas and young ones to create a supportive community for our homeschooling families. The more, the better!

Come with a mug or without, we’ll fill you up a cup of hot coffee while we talk around the table with each other and build community. Have a particular interest you’d like to discuss with the group? Bring it! We talk birds, fitness and anything else that builds excitement and connection within our fabulous community. All ages welcome, all encouraged to attend!

The Varnum wishes to support all members of our communities in their educational and community-needs, and we would love to hear from you! Please join us as we make space and time to figure out collaboratively how best to support our homeschooling folks.

We will gather to do a small project together and have the space for socialization. Come meet your homeschooling community members!

Please bring your needs, ideas and young ones to create a supportive community for our homeschooling families. The more, the better!

Come with a mug or without, we’ll fill you up a cup of hot coffee while we talk around the table with each other and build community. Have a particular interest you’d like to discuss with the group? Bring it! We talk birds, fitness and anything else that builds excitement and connection within our fabulous community. All ages welcome, all encouraged to attend!