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Community Corner

Friends of Library Honors Volunteers

Awards were presented and a new slate of officers was named during festivities Friday night.

During the Friends of the Westport Library annual meeting last night, awards were presented to volunteers who have helped the library during the past year.

Friends of the Library is a nonprofit membership organization that supports and promotes the library through contributions, program enrichment and special events. Since 1947, the group has helped to expand the library through cultural programs and gifts to the library.

During her opening remarks, Katharine Fording, president of the Friends of the Library, noted that the group has supported more than 1,000 programs to the library and made donations to the library for the purchase of equipment and books.

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The 2010 Friends Special Recognition Award was presented to Sitara Mahtani, who has volunteered at the library since her freshman year at high school. In the fall, she will become a freshman at Vassar College.

The Special Recognition Award honors a person who exemplifies outstanding contributions to the Westport Library.

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Mahatni said that she chose to start volunteering at the library because she wanted to give back to a place that she has enjoyed since she was very young.

The 2010 Special Friends Award was presented to the Spoken Word Committee: Simone Dubow, Carol Diamond, Phyllis Groner and Nicki Untermeyer.

The Spoken Word committee pays tribute to great literature and has been behind such endeavors as the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote with programs and lectures as well as a celebration of Homer that was accompanied by a tribute to ancient Greece.

In honor of the four honorees, Mark Schenker, associate dean at Yale College, presented a humorous poem  written in their  honor. He was accompanied by Eddie Pleasant, a performing  artist in opera and theater. Both Schenker and Pleasant have participated in a number of Spoken Word events.

The poem, written by Schenker, appears below: 

The Four Muses of The Spoken Word           

For years in Westport it's occurred:

This program called The Spoken Word.

From celebrating Joyce to Rome,

Four women always bring it home:

Carol, Nikki, Phyllis, Simone:

We praise you for the work you've done.

Who finds new ways to teach us, thrill us?

Simone and Carol, Nikki, Phyllis.

Who comes through when things get sticky?

Simone and Phyllis, Carol, Nikki.

Yes, they've got talent by the barrel.

Simone and Nikki, Phyllis, Carol:

And special kudos to our chair,

Whose leadership's beyond compare:

Simone Dubow, from its debut,

The program owes great thanks to you.

Let others focus in on Earth Day;

They did Bloomsday's 100th birthday!

In sessions using text and voice

They had the town enjoying Joyce.

And what's their encore, some folks wondered:

Why, Don Quixote turns 400!

They called to life Cervantes' Spain

And had the old knight ride again.

And then in year two thousand six

They brought Shakespeare into the mix:

We loved the sessions that they gave on

The writings of the Bard of Avon.

As if their wonders never cease

They then moved on to Ancient Greece;

The culture's what they focused on,

From Homer to the Parthenon.

And three years after doing Spain

They celebrated our Mark Twain.

And in that wise and witty choice

We heard America's new voice.

Two thousand nine, still going strong,

They turned to Harlem's dance and song.

And showed us both the highs and lows

Behind the era's verse and prose.

And here, now in two thousand ten,

They've brought the ancients back again:

From art and thought to play and poem,

They show how all roads lead from Rome.

Quartets are found in many places:

Mount Rushmore's group of stony faces,

Those famous lads from Liverpool,

The simple math we learned in school:

Subtract and add, times and divide.

Well, we count ourselves, with thanks and pride,

As blessed by four of Westport's own:

Carol, Nikki, Phyllis, Simone.

Without you we'd have never heard

The wonders of The Spoken Word.

The proposed slate of officers  for the 2010-11 executive committee of the Friends of the Library also was announced during the event. The officers are Robin Berggren, president; Marcia Falk, vice president, administration; Lucy Johnson, vice president, programming; Mimi Greenlee, vice president, book sales; Peter Kolbrener, treasurer; Kathie Fording, past president; and Jeanne Burris, nominating.

 

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