Library Fair 2012 — A Success by Any Measure!

By Margie Doyle
Updated August 13 at 8 p.m.

Lila Richardson’s son was crowded out of his stroller with book purchases, while her daughter’s face was shielded from the bright sun by her pretty hat at the 2012 Library Fair.

It was the best Library Fair ever!

Especially if you love words, conversation and communication! The Friends of the Library’s booksale was crowded with human bookworms and information seekers all day long; purchasing lines were kept to a minimum with roving cashiers in bright red aprons.

Vendors displayed and sold their wares to an always-moving, never-congested crowd of islanders and tourists alike. Information about important island campaigns from preserving the land to maintaining good health to building homes to educating kids to protecting the marine environment was exchanged in lively and good-spirited conversations. On a casual basis, neighbors re-connected after summer trips abroad or in the garden.

Douglas Ellis, clad in a pretty little apron, directs Library Fair visitors to the OPAL pie booth

The Saturday Farmer’s Market moved into North Beach Road and did a brisk business beyond the Village Green. Classical flute music, bluesy jazz and folksong wafted from the Stage on the Green throughout the day.

Hawkers, most notably from the OPAL Land Trust pie booth, drew customers to their booths, and a little girl in her pink tutu plunked down by the apple trees until she found her parents, who’d been lost.

Library Director Phil Heikkinen said, “I greatly admire and appreciate the people who make this such a success from year to year, including James Lobdell who coordinates the Fair overall, Lynn Carter who runs the book sale and serves as Treasurer, Pierrette Guimond who pitches in everywhere as the Friends President, Tim Lunde coordinating the booth rentals, Sue Lamb who runs the Silent Art Auction, Leslie Seaman who does such a great job with the music every year, and others who spend so much time to set up, operate, and take down the Fair. We’ve also been fortunate to work with the Rowing Team, which helps us move all those hundreds of boxes of books, which I estimate at about 1,000 (somewhere around 20,000 books!). We sold more than half of them, which would total over 10,000 books going into the hands of local and visiting readers on a single day.

“I think that the arrangement with the Farmers’ Market worked out well. I hope that they too feel good about the day.

“What a terrific social and revenue-producing community event! I would hate to think of life without the Friends and the Library Fair.”