May 1 – We pulled out our best graphic design and AI skills to create a visual map of our gardens so we could best prepare our garden designs. We cross-referenced with Burpee guides to be sure that whatever we plant will work well with its neighbors.
May 7 – Library Director Erin George asked the local Girl Scouts to create plant markers for our gardens and made plans with the library landscaper to put in the final garden bed in preparation for an end-of-the-month planting/ground-breaking!
May 8-10 – Research was done by several patrons and volunteers on fencing and other tools/things that would be needed for our gardens, like hoses, etc. Erin also researched the cost of plugs, bulbs, and plants that are already established versus seedlings already started in the conference room. Meanwhile, library children continued to keep an eye on seedlings to be sure they were watered and turned to and away from the sun as needed.
May 13 – Gay-Kimball kids had a blast planning gardens using seed catalogues and creating gardens all their own, learning more about the differences between pollinator gardens and other types of gardens.
April 17 – A regular patron volunteer removed the rocks from our cardboard and spread compost over it so that the cardboard could begin the process of decomposition. We will soon add a layer of mulch to complete the prep for our pollinator garden for now.
April 21 – Just in time for Earth Day, we held a special Storytime by inviting a special guest in to help us get seeds started for the gardens. Ruth, known to the library kids as “Nans” or “Nana,” came in to teach the kids about seeds. The kids planted sunflowers and transplanted tomatoes. These plants will continue to grow in pods in the library conference room over the next few weeks, and the children will take care of them during weekly Storytimes. The Girl Scouts, in the meantime, will also look after them. Nana left seeds, pods, potting soil, and more for other age groups to plant throughout the week, and librarians designated several tables in the conference room as spaces for our makeshift “greenhouse.”
April 22 – We had a teen volunteer come in to help us plant seeds in starter pods in our conference room for the following for our veggie garden: cauliflower, lettuce, eggplant, and peas! We were also able to help a patron with tomatoes she’d lost in an early frost by replacing them with our own starter tomatoes from the Storytime group; what community gardening is all about!
April 23 – We moved the two ten-foot container gardens outside and lined the back of the building with them. We filled the bottoms with cardboard and mulch and brought in two truckloads of soil to fill them.
Week Three
This week was all about planting more seedlings, keeping them watered, and the research. While we continued our learning in programming with books like “The Bad Seed” and “Growing Together,” we also looked toward tools like “Burpee Companion Guide” to plan our garden designs. We learned that some plants are poisonous to one another, while others complement each other, and came up with the following plans for our gardens:
Bring on the May flowers and those plentiful gardens! Thanks to a generous donation from UNH, the library is now bursting with seeds for our community and pollinator garden projects! But before we get to those, let’s take a look back at what April brought us…
Between the showers, we saw the first buds of a Friends of the Library group with an informational meeting in mid-April. We are so thankful for the many people willing to support the library through a Friends group. It’s not too late to join. If you are interested, please call the library at (603) 242-7743 and let us know.
We were also honored to host a POW/MIA display from Rolling Thunder, which is still set up in our library to honor The Missing Man. This display reminds us of our brave lost soldiers and prisoners of war with solemn symbolism. It is a great educational tool for all. If you’re interested, there’s still a limited amount of time to stop by and learn more.
The Missing Man table isn’t the only new display you’ll see if you visit. We’ve recently made the most of our spring cleaning and created a new reading nook meant to encourage more young adult visitors and readers at Gay-Kimball Library. We’ve also changed the way we catalogue our movie collection to make it easier for our movie-loving patrons to find their favorite titles! Stop by and check out the changes and let us know what you think!
Also in April, we set up a program with Author Veronica Francis for our New Hampshire Humanities Civic Life and Belonging grant. This program, “What’s YOUR Story?” is slated for Thursday, July 30 at 6 pm. It is a storytelling presentation and workshop that highlights how stories connect us all. Presented by Francis, this presentation and workshop will demonstrate connections neighbors might not realize they have, despite living close by.
Veronica is a New Hampshire storyteller, keynote speaker, and technology coach who helps people navigate change with clarity, confidence, and a sense of humor. Known for her warm presence and relatable storytelling, Veronica blends real-life experience with practical insight – reminding audiences that adaptability matters more than perfection, especially when the plan falls apart.
New Hampshire Humanities’ Civic Life and Belonging Grants fund events that improve civic life by bringing together community members and supporting meaningful discussion and perspective sharing through a cultural or humanities lens.
New Hampshire Humanities connects people and ideas by funding and supporting statewide programs that inspire curiosity, foster civil dialogue, and explore big questions. Learn more at www.nhhumanities.org. This event is made possible by New Hampshire Humanities, with support from New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
Back to those highly anticipated community gardens: In early April, we had our county site visit, applied to a master gardener program, and collected the names of people interested in helping with this project. There is a lot of work to be done! We will be holding community-wide volunteer meetings soon. Please watch our social media pages and website for details of when we will meet and the kind of help we are looking for. In the meantime, please call, drop by, or message the library if you are interested in joining the gardening club! We would love all the help we can get and would especially welcome assistance from anyone with special skills in gardening, soil, farming, wildlife, and pollinators. The more help, the better!
Springing ahead, this month, our students at Troy Elementary School will get a special visit on May 14 from Author Marek Bennet, thanks to our Children’s Literacy Foundation Rural Libraries (CLiF) grant! NH-based cartoonist, musician, and educator Marek Bennett leads discovery-based Comics Workshops for all ages throughout New England and the world beyond. His comics work includes the graphic novel series, The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, as well as drawing, translating, & editing for The Most Costly Journey (2021) with the bilingual El Viaje Project. In September 2022, both books were featured at the National Book Festival in Washington DC. Marek is the recipient of the New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award for Art Education. His website is: www.MarekBennett.com
As always, we are thankful for our patrons, who help make the library not only a resource but a community hub for so many in town. Give us a call if you have ideas on ways we can better serve Troy and its residents!
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Our Hours:
Tuesday – 10:00 am – 7 pm
Wednesday & Thursday – 2 pm – 7 pm
Saturday – 10 am – 2 pm
Do those hours not work for you? You can make use of our 24/7 Library Lockers!
The story of Gay-Kimball Library’s Community/Pollinator Garden Grant Projects through the Cheshire County Conservation District Conservation Opportunity Fund
Gay-Kimball Library
Community/Pollinator Garden Grant Project
Week One
April 8 – Erin George, Director of the Gay-Kimball Library, met with members of the Cheshire County Conservation District for a site visit to learn more about how to best proceed with the community/pollinator garden project. Experts advised on the best location for these gardens, how to go about killing the grass, when to start, and various resources that would be helpful along the way.
Later, we took before pictures…
April 9 – We met with the Girl Scouts and a member of the town Conservation Commission to discuss our project. The Girl Scouts will be contributing to the project by creating hummingbird feeders for our pollinator garden area. They will also help with some of the gardening. The Conservation Commission and our regular landscaper will be helping with trimming and is onboard with our plan for the project. He’s also walked the property and given feedback on site placement taking into account the recommendations of the Conservation District and all are in agreement on site placement.
April 10 – We began stripping cardboard of shipping tapes and cutting off any parts with inks or dyes, saving only clean cardboard to begin our process of cardboard mulching our pollinator garden. This was on the suggestion of the Cheshire County Conservation District.
April 11 – Erin talked to a local retired science professor to schedule a BioBlitz that will work well in conjunction with our community and pollinator garden projects. This event is scheduled for June of 2026 and will go hand-in-hand with our summer reading theme: Plant a Seed: Read.
April 13 – We collected rocks from last year’s summer reading project – “Kimball the snake” and saved them for repurposing to hold down the cardboard we’ll use to kill the grass for our pollinator garden. We also assembled two eight-foot container gardens that will be used for the vegetable portion of our community garden. We finished cleaning off cardboard for tomorrow’s Storytime group, who will begin the process of killing grass through cardboard mulching. We also created signs to let the community know of the beginnings of our project. Lastly, we started this day-by-day record.
April 14 – We worked with 20-plus Storytime kids ages two to seven and their parents to lay cardboard down after our regular Pledge of Allegiance, reading of the book “Goodnight Veggies,” and a talk on the difference between fruits and vegetables, as well as a review on what pollinators are. The kids had a blast smashing cardboard and spraying it down as well as rethinking “Kimball” the rock snake into his new form as a “cardboard crusher” for our “coming soon” bee home. The kids are excited for next week, when we will meet with a special guest gardener to learn more about seeds, lay down compost and mulch, and work on Earth Day activities tied to our very own gardens!
Gay-Kimball Library is hosting a Bioblitz Saturday, June 27 from 10 am to 2 pm.
Are you a birder, a snake enthusiast, fascinated by insects, or find yourself wondering what plant or critter is that? Are you looking for a chance to train your naturalist skills with like-minded peers? Get your phones charged and help us record every plant and critter you see. We will be using a free app – iNaturalist – to record what neighborhood species we share our Troy community with.
A BioBlitz is a fast-paced, community-driven event where scientists, volunteers, and nature enthusiasts work together to identify as many species as possible in a specific location within a set timeframe (often 24 hours). It combines education, scientific observation, and nature exploration to document biodiversity, often using apps like iNaturalist.
There will be a Biodiversity presentation on Wednesday June 10 at 5:30 pm, before the Bioblitz.
Troy resident Dan Bisaccio led biological diversity projects for the Smithsonian Institution for over 30 years in tropical forests around the globe. He will present a slide show on why biological diversity is important to all of us and discuss how to get involved with our upcoming Troy, NH BioBlitz. Dan will also go over how you can participate in BioBlitz by using iNaturalist and contributing your sightings of plants, bugs, birds, and all things natural to our day’s biodiversity inventory. This presentation is geared for adults who are willing to assist young naturalists or with friends, neighbors, or by themselves contribute to our biodiversity “snapshot” inventory. It’s important to bring your phone to this event!
LTC is an ALA initiative to help small and rural libraries increase the accessibility of facilities, services, and programs to better serve people with disabilities. The 300 funded proposals represent 46 U.S. states and the Northern Mariana Islands. Of the selected libraries, 73 percent serve communities with populations of 5,000 or fewer. 126 of the libraries also received funding in previous rounds of the grant initiative, bringing the total number of LTC: Accessible Small and Rural Communities grantees to 836. 16 libraries received funding in all four rounds of the initiative.
This grant will go a long way toward upgrades at Gay-Kimball Library that will help with accessibility for many patrons, according to Director Erin George. From expanding the large print and audio book sections to upgrading technology and offering new ways of getting materials to patrons with mobility challenges, the LTC grant will mean better access to library resources for all. “We are so excited to talk with our patrons about ways we can better serve them and help make the library easier to access,” George said.
Fifty libraries will receive grants of $20,000, and 250 libraries will receive grants of $10,000. In accordance with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) definitions, eligibility was limited to communities with populations of less than 25,000 located at least five miles from an urbanized area.
Selected libraries have identified a primary audience they wish to serve (e.g., people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities or intellectual disabilities). Library staff will conduct community input-gathering sessions with the identified primary audience to discuss accessibility in the community and library to collaboratively identify existing resources, needs/gaps and priorities. The libraries will then use the funds to create services or improve their facilities, services or program offerings based on the needs identified by their audience.
Previously funded LTC projects have included installing chair lifts and hearing loops, hosting arts and crafts programs for community members living with Alzheimer’s and memory loss, creating accessible outdoor spaces like community gardens and playgrounds and mental health programs for high school students.
Since 2014, ALA has distributed LTC funding to foster community engagement skills among library workers and support need-driven projects. LTC: Accessible Small and Rural Communities is offered in partnership with the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL).
“The Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) sends our congratulations to all of the returning and first-time libraries awarded in this final round of LTC: Accessible Small and Rural Communities,” said ARSL Executive Director Kate Laughlin. “We are excited to have representation of small and rural libraries across all fifty states and the Northern Mariana Islands and look forward to seeing projects come to fruition!”
Libraries Transforming Communities is administered by the ALA Public Programs Office. The American Library Association is the largest non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to America’s libraries. The ALA mission is to empower and advocate for all libraries and library workers to ensure equitable access to information for all. For 150 years, ALA has provided resources for information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more information, visit www.ala.org.
TROY, NH- Gay-Kimball Library has received a Civic Life and Belonging grant from New Hampshire Humanities to present “What’s Your Story?” “What’s Your Story” will occur on July 30 from 6 to 8 pm at Gay-Kimball Library in Troy, New Hampshire.
This program is a storytelling presentation and workshop that highlights how stories connect us. Presented by Author Veronica Francis, this program will demonstrate connections and commonalities neighbors might not realize they have, despite living nearby for years.
Veronica is a New Hampshire storyteller, keynote speaker, and technology coach who helps people navigate change with clarity, confidence, and a sense of humor. Known for her warm presence and relatable storytelling, Veronica blends real-life experience with practical insight – reminding audiences that adaptability matters more than perfection, especially when the plan falls apart.
This program is free and open to the public, will include refreshments, and will begin promptly at 6 pm. You do not have to be a Troy resident or Gay-Kimball Library patron to participate.
New Hampshire Humanities’ Civic Life and Belonging Grants fund events that improve civic life by bringing together community members and supporting meaningful discussion and perspective sharing through a cultural or humanities lens. New Hampshire Humanities connects people and ideas by funding and supporting statewide programs that inspire curiosity, foster civil dialogue, and explore big questions. Learn more at www.nhhumanities.org. This event is made possible by New Hampshire Humanities, with support from New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
It’s hard to believe winter’s finally behind us! As we spring into a new season, we look back on a productive winter at the Gay-Kimball Library. From a successful book sale and plenty of cozy reads and programming opportunities like Chess Club to a hot chocolate bar and tracking event, we made our share of memories! We also had great luck with yet another grant season! It’s almost overwhelming how generous our community has been in helping to support our small, rural library this year. We are so thankful!
In March, we were fortunate to receive a $2,000 Civic Life and Belonging grant from New Hampshire Humanities! This grant will go toward adult programming aimed at the importance of storytelling and how our unique stories unite us. Between ongoing workshops and community events, this grant will help make our community stronger just in time for the nation’s 250th celebration. Stay tuned for details on a special summer event coming to Troy as a result of this generous grant. New Hampshire Humanities’ Civic Life and Belonging Grants fund events that improve civic life by bringing together community members and supporting meaningful discussion and perspective sharing through a cultural or humanities lens.
New Hampshire Humanities connects people and ideas by funding and supporting statewide programs that inspire curiosity, foster civil dialogue, and explore big questions. Learn more at www.nhhumanities.org. This is all made possible by New Hampshire Humanities, with support from New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
Plans are also now underway for how we will use our Science Across America grant to participate in the nation’s 2.5 Million Acts of Science program as part of our nation’s 250th celebration. If you have any ideas for science programming you would like to see brought to the library, please let us know! One of the programs we will bring to the library this summer will be a bio blitz, as well as a community garden.
We are currently looking to form a gardening group thanks to a $1500 grant from the Cheshire County Conservation District. Our Conservation Opportunity Fund Grant will allow us to create a Gay-Kimball Library Community Garden in time for this year’s summer reading Plant a Seed: Read theme. This project will be for all ages, with the gardening club meant for adults, and some educational projects planned for kids. The gardening will be for all, with families and anyone in town encouraged to participate in the community garden on an ongoing basis.
With spring here, garden plans are moving fast, and we have already been approved for a large bulk donation through the Free Seeds for Education program through the UNH Cooperative Extension Program. Please call, drop by, or message the library if you are interested in joining the gardening club! We would love all the help we can get and would especially welcome help from anyone with special skills in gardening, soil, farming, wildlife, and pollinators. The more help, the better!
While it’s still a bit off, our students at Troy Elementary School will get a special visit on May 14 from Author Marek Bennet, thanks to our Children’s Literacy Foundation Rural Libraries grant! NH-based cartoonist, musician, and educator Marek Bennett leads discovery-based Comics Workshops for all ages throughout New England and the world beyond. His comics work includes the graphic novel series, The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, as well as drawing, translating, & editing for The Most Costly Journey (2021) with the bilingual El Viaje Project. In September 2022, both books were featured at the National Book Festival in Washington DC. Marek is the recipient of the New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award for Art Education. His website is: www.MarekBennett.com
As always, we are thankful for our patrons, who help make the library not only a resource but a community hub for so many in town. Give us a call if you have ideas on ways we can better serve Troy and its residents!
***
Our Hours:
Tuesday – 10:00 am – 7 pm
Wednesday & Thursday – 2 pm – 7 pm
Saturday – 10 am – 2 pm
Do those hours not work for you? You can make use of our 24/7 Library Lockers!
Feeling lucky? We sure are! Winter brought the library a fantastic presentation on tracking by our very own Dan Bisaccio, a friendly Superbowl raffle won by the lucky Heather B, Cupid’s touch with a hot chocolate bar Valentine social, a generous, bulk no-water flower donation by a patron, and a week-long book sale. It also brought us a SCIENCE ACROSS AMERICA Grant that will mean library programming for all ages as part of the nation’s 250th celebration.
As America celebrates its 250-year anniversary, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and STAR Net have launched a new campaign to help libraries highlight the history of scientific achievement in our country and the local connections to science in our communities. SCIENCE ACROSS AMERICA, the newest campaign from Spark of Science@ My Library, offered this grant to encourage libraries to showcase local scientific advances and scientists, engage our communities with focused Community Dialogues, and host educational and inspirational activities that shine a light on the past, present, and future of science in our lives. We are excited to move forward with this programming, particularly with this year’s reading programming theme of Plant a Seed.
In February, we also introduced Kanopy streaming to our services! Thanks to another recent grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, patrons with active library cards can stream free movies from the Kanopy app. How lucky is that?
Last month, we had record numbers with our popular Tuesday Storytime and many requests to start a Toddler Time at the library. If you are interested in a second Storytime day or a new Toddler Time program, please let us know. We have also had interest in a tween homeschooling program at Gay-Kimball. Please give us a call if this is something you might be interested in so we can learn more about your students’ particular needs.
Up next, we will host a Lucky Leprechaun Tea with Miss MaryLee on Tuesday, March 10 at 4 pm. This program is open to kids of all ages and free of charge. We encourage attendees to dress in green for this event. A craft and a story will be included along with Kimball the snake’s lucky charm spirit.
While it’s still a bit off, our students at Troy Elementary School will get a special visit on May 14 from Author Marek Bennet, thanks to our Children’s Literacy Foundation Rural Libraries grant! NH-based cartoonist, musician, and educator Marek Bennett leads discovery-based Comics Workshops for all ages throughout New England and the world beyond. His comics work includes the graphic novel series, The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, as well as drawing, translating, & editing for The Most Costly Journey (2021) with the bilingual El Viaje Project. In September 2022, both books were featured at the National Book Festival in Washington DC. Marek is the recipient of the New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award for Art Education. His website is: www.MarekBennett.com
We are currently seeking patrons interested in joining a Friends of the Library group. The commitment for this group is regular meetings about once a month and a willingness to help out in ways YOU enjoy. If you are interested in this group, contact the library, and we’ll add you to the list! The formation of a Friends group is important to the library as it expands our ability to apply for more grants, something that is working well to keep our costs to the town minimal without hurting services to our patrons.
We are thrilled that we’ve had an uptick in groups using our conference room for a variety of purposes. As of the new year, we kindly request that groups complete new forms to ensure proper use of the space. Please check in with us if you haven’t filled out the new form yet so we can give you new information and reserve those spots for you. Groups who have already filled out the new form won’t need to do it again. As always, we are thankful for our patrons, who help make the library not only a resource but a community hub for so many in town. Give us a call if you have ideas on ways we can better serve Troy and its residents!
Cupid’s calling at Gay-Kimball! As we fall in love with books all over again, we’re happy to announce great news for the library and its patrons, thanks to the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation: Gay-Kimball Library recently received a two-year, $20,000 grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. The grant will help further the Gay-Kimball Library’s mission of providing education, resources, and support for its patrons in the town of Troy, NH.
The Gay-Kimball Library’s Mission is to meet the community’s recreational and Informational needs in a creative, professional, and welcoming manner. It offers diverse resources and provides a community meeting place for people of all ages.
The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, New Hampshire’s statewide community foundation, is dedicated to making New Hampshire a more just, sustainable, and vibrant community where everyone can thrive. NHCF is the place where generosity meets the dedication and ingenuity of nonprofits and the potential of New Hampshire students. For six decades, thousands of people have entrusted their charitable resources to the Foundation, creating a perpetual source of philanthropic capital and making it possible for the Foundation to award more than $70 million in grants and scholarships every year.
In January, we had a fantastic tracking program at our library where patrons learned how to identify the wildlife visitors to their yards! We will now be fortunate enough to conduct our own mini tracking studies at home thanks to Dan Bisaccio!
Our library also received a mini-grant from the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF) that enabled us to purchase a puppet theater and puppet-making supplies for our children’s room. Our Storytime kids had fun using their imaginations to create their own puppets and meet Pete the Cat in puppet form! If you haven’t brought your kids to the library lately, now is the time to check out all the new books and resources in our children’s room!
In other positive news, and based on patron requests, we will be holding a week-long Winter Book Sale in the library’s conference room. The sale will begin on Friday, February 20 from 6 to 8 pm and run through 2 pm on Saturday, February 28. Load up all the books your heart desires in a bag for only $5!
We are currently seeking patrons interested in joining a Friends of the Library group. The commitment for this group is regular meetings about once a month and a willingness to help out in ways YOU enjoy. If you are interested in this group, contact the library, and we’ll add you to the list!
We’ve had an uptick in groups using our conference room for a variety of purposes. As of the new year, we kindly request that all groups complete new forms to ensure the proper use of the space. Please check in with us if you haven’t filled out the new form yet so that we can give you new information and reserve those spots for you. Groups who have already filled out the new form won’t need to do it again.
As always, we are thankful for our patrons, who help make the library not only a resource but a community hub for so many in town. Give us a call if you have ideas on ways we can better serve Troy and its residents!
***
Our Hours:
Tuesday – 10:00 am – 7 pm
Wednesday & Thursday – 2 pm – 7 pm
Saturday – 10 am – 2 pm
Do those hours not work for you? You can make use of our 24/7 Library Lockers!
