Summer STEM is back

STEM Tuesdays, July 9-30, 3p.m.

Come to the library Tuesday afternoons to try out the library’s new Fairy Tale Problem solving kits from Lakeshore Learning.

Try out a new kit each week. No registration necessary, best for ages 6-11, but younger siblings always welcome.

Community Conversation on Library Accessibility

Tuesday July 9, at 1:30 or 6:30 p.m.

A more accessible library?  Come talk to us about it!

The Wendell Free Library wants to hear from you on how we can increase the accessibility of our facilities, services, and programs. Through a grant from the American Library Association, we have received $10,000 to improve the library experience of our community members with disabilities. Please join us for a discussion on the best use of these grant funds.

REGISTER by email wendell@cwmars.org, Phone 978-544-3559. Please let us know any accommodations needed to help you participate in this conversation. All participants will receive a $25 gift certificate to a local store of their choosing to thank them for their time and service.

This event is offered as part of Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities, an initiative of the American Library Association (ALA) in collaboration with the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL).

CNC Playgroup

Wednesdays July 10th-31st,

10-11:30 a.m.

Drop-in, no registration required.

Free play time to socialize, play with other families.  Storytime, finger plays, favorite songs and activities. Ages 0-5.

Stone Circle Free Concert: Zydeco Connection

Friday July 12, 6:30 p.m.

Shine: Wendell Free Lib. Stone Circle, Rain: Wendell Meeting House.

Zydeco Connection brings the irresistible sounds and driving rhythms of Louisiana zydeco to New England; playing a spicy mix of zydeco, waltzes, two-steps, blues, boogie-woogie and a little swing.

Come down prepared to dance, bring a blanket or chair, a picnic dinner if you like. In the event of rain the concert will take place at the Wendell Meeting House.

Big thanks to the Friends of the Wendell Free Library for making the Stone Circle Concerts possible!

Boxville: a Cardboard Community on the Common

Saturday July 13, 10-noon

Join in on the fun of building Boxville! BYO cardboard if possible.

Additional cardboard available.

Show up with your ideas & get building.

2 hours of creative play.

Everybody welcome.

Children under 11 must bring an adult.

Bring friends & additional cardboard of all shapes & sizes.

watermelon served @11:45.

Families are encouraged to take home their creations for further play!

The Rainbow Players Solos & Ensemble: Looking Back & Beyond!

Stories from 25 years of Social Justice Theater and Travels.

Saturday July 20, 3-4:30.

The Rainbow Players, supported by director, Ezzell Floraniña, perform their personal stories. Labeled as disabled, telling each story in different ways, as a performance memoir.  All the stories are

devised and told from the vantage point of the individual who is labeled as disabled, involving visual art and original writing.  The Rainbow Players have been performing devised theater for over 25 years through a social justice improvisation form.

The stories: one actor who spent his youth in a state institution for the “retarded” from 1962-1972, juxtaposed with an actor’s story in the same era who avoided this fate. Others were children in the early years of Special Ed.

Troubled Waters: Wendell’s Doomed Power Plant 1909-1938

Tuesday July 23, 6:30 p.m.

The Athol-Orange Power Plant was a major construction project in
1909-1910, supplying electricity to communities along the Millers River
for nearly 30 years.  But in 1938 extreme weather, which had a history
of reshaping local communities, would prove to be too much for this
technological behemoth.  Wendell Historical Society board members Pam
Richardson, Edward Hines and Joseph Coll will present the history of
this facility, whose destruction nearly destroyed the town.  Tuesday,
July 23, 2024, 6:30 PM, Wendell Free Library.

Seating for this event is limited; if you would like to reserve a place
please send an email to:
info@wendellhistoricalsociety.org

West African Drumming Workshop for Teens & Adults

Friday July 26: 6:30 p.m.

Come learn West African drumming with Jafar Manselle and the Wendell Warriors. This is a free program and drums will be provided.

This program is supported in part by a grant by the Wendell Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Origami Workshop

Saturday July 27, 1-3 p.m.

No registration required for this everything origami workshop. Best for ages 5 and up. A very short presentation on the history/origins of origami followed by hands on instruction of multiple designs.

CookBook Book Club

Sunday July 28, 4:30 p.m.

Celebrate Summer produce with the Wendell Free Library Cookbook Book Club.  It’s a book club that’s really a potluck! This season we will be cooking a recipe out of Milk Street Vegetables, by Christopher Kimball of America’s Test Kitchen. Pick up a copy on the book club shelf, & register at the front desk (or via phone/ email.)