FOHL April 2025 Newsletter
Published on April 01, 2025
A quarter of the year has gone, with April nearly upon us - which means Easter is looming. Very difficult not to be aware with the amount of Easter confectionary, etc, available at our supermarkets (beware waistline!!).
Morning Tea
Our Mystery No 1 for March is no longer a mystery. Henry Gerber, our wonderful Services to Older Adults Librarian, gave us an update on what he is doing and the interconnections he is involved with to ensure that the Dementia and Alzheimer’s Book Collection (funded by FOHL) and those for whom the resources have been acquired, are actually able to use them constructively. We then had the privilege of hearing something of Henry’s life growing up in South Africa, which was very interesting. Thank you so much, Henry. Now we all love a good yarn, and our speaker for April will be Jo Campbell, Yarn Therapy Ltd. From her website, Jo says “I love to make yarn sing with the application of colour. I use multi layered dyeing techniques that I’ve perfected over the past 15+ years to create colour stories that you’ll love to look at, on yarn bases that you’ll love to work with, and to wear”.
So do join us on Wednesday, 2 April 2025 at 10.30 am to hear from Jo about her yarn journey, and do bring your friends.
Tea and Tales
Come and join Tea and Tales – in Levin it will be on Thursday, 3 April In Foxton it will be on Tuesday, 29 April.
Mystery No 2 (the Foxton venue), however, will not quite be revealed until the actual day as Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom is having roofing repairs and if a room is not available, Tea and Tales will be held at Mewington’s Book Shoppe, now located at 24 Main Street (previously on SH1).
If you have not yet been to Mewington’s Book Shoppe, it is well worth a visit, not just for Tea and Tales. If you are able to join us there will be tea/coffee and biscuits, as well a great company and stories.
Shelf Tidying Working Bees
Mystery No 3 – not that difficult to figure out. The author of 101 books counted in the O, P, Q section is James Patterson, and a re-count this week did confirm 100 plus books. Perhaps not the most productive use of tidying time, but certainly keeps one engaged even if it is somewhat of a digression from a, b, c to 1, 2, 3.
9 April 2025 (the second Wednesday of the month) will be the next shelf tidying - 8.30 am at the Bath Street, Levin, entrance. Hopefully you can spare an hour or so, to assist.
Annual General Meeting
The Friends of Horowhenua Libraries Annual General Meeting was held at Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-pō on Wednesday 19 March 2025. It was a very positive meeting. There have been some changes. Margaret Clarke, who has in the past been not only a Committee Member, but also Chairperson, has stepped back (after 13 or so years). Although she will no longer be on the Committee, she will still support the Friends whenever and wherever she can. Wendy Fraser, Library Services Manager, acknowledged Margaret’s great service, presenting her with a bouquet of flowers on behalf of the Libraries’ staff.
Our Chair for the past year, Yvonne Creasy, has also stepped down, but will be remaining on the Committee. Thank you, Yvonne, for your wonderful work, particularly doing the roster for the book sales (which you will continue to undertake) and thank you, Trish Tough, for be prepared to step in as Chair.
It is also very pleasing to note there are three new members, so the Committee for the coming year is: Trish Tough (Chair), Diane Welch (Secretary), Denys Astin (Treasurer), Yvonne Creasy, Karen Corkill, and our new members, Jean Gant, Carna Laing and Val McCall.
We will now wait and see what the year ahead brings, although we do know that it will involve our libraries, and ‘books’ or the written word in some form or another.
Anzac Day
ANZAC Day – 25 April 2025 - commemorates those we have lost to war and honours returned servicemen and women. Information on the ANZAC ceremonies in Horowhenua can be found on Council’s website. Lest we forget.
Summer Reading Challenge
2 December 2024 to 1 March 2025
This was a great initiative to be able to support, financially through FOHL and also personally, doing and tracking a lot of reading (such an ordeal). It was interesting to read a recent newspaper article by Samantha Tibbs, Children’s Learning Librarian: “Between 1 December and 28 February our readers took up the challenge and together read a whopping 208,143 pages of 1,131 books. We had enthusiastic participation from many adult readers who were moved to read more this summer by the promise of planting trees – an incredible 357 books. A special shout out to Susan from Foxton who read over 11,000 pages. It was also heartening to see the enthusiasm from our younger readers. Collectively children read 80,662 pages. One 11 year old avid reader logged a whopping 104 books.”
Hopefully this is something that we will be able to support again.
Book Crawl
Mystery No 4 – Enlightenment will come in due course. The last one was very enjoyable – we look forward to finding out – where too/what next.