You're invited!

 

Many Happy "Returns"

When we moved from our home in the Rural Municipality into the City of Portage la Prairie in 2002, one of the perks I discovered early was that I no longer needed to pay an annual non-resident fee for my library membership. Only two years later, the library became regional, receiving funds from the RM as well, and changed its name to Portage la Prairie Regional Library. This week, it’s celebrating 20 years as a regional library. I thought it might be fun to dig into its history and, with the help of Director Jen Kendall, I acquired more material than this post
can hold.

While some local churches kept libraries dating back to the mid-1850s, the Local Council of Women (LCW) founded the first true public lending library in 1917, with Mrs. W.W. Miller as its first Head Librarian. This operated out of a community club room. From there, the library moved into several locations including the Billy Richardson House on 3rd St. SW, the former and current City Halls, the former Bank of Montreal and Manitoba Hydro buildings, and the current Keystone Sports store.

Voters officially approved the public library on October 23, 1968. The Bylaw passed later that year, with the City Library opening in 1969. Its board began identifying potential regionalization targets, to ensure its longevity and usefulness. Having multiple municipalities buy in would mean more books on the shelves and more staff to assist patrons.

In 1974, the RM of Portage began subsidizing membership fees for their residents. This meant that RM residents paid a lower non-resident fee than people in other municipalities. Further discussions about becoming a regional library took place in 1976. It moved into its current location, 40B Royal Road North, in 1999. When regionalization finally happened five years later, the resulting increase in funding from municipalities and the Province allowed our library to keep pace with technology and add more materials to the collection.

Our longest-running Head Librarian/Director was Percy Gregoire-Voskamp, who came on staff in 1976 and served as Director from 1997 until his retirement in 2018. Over those 42 years, he witnessed many changes in location, staff, and procedures—from the old card catalog system to computerized checkouts, as well as the expansion to more services such as digital books, audiovisual materials, and internet use. Did you know that, thanks to support from Central Plains Cancer Services, you can even borrow a Radon Screening Kit from the library to test your home? Now you do.

Our library currently employs six full-time and eight part-time staff, plus several volunteers who do inventory and other collection-related tasks. They’re led by six Board members who meet six times a year, three appointed by City Council and three by the RM Council.

Not counting eBooks, audiobooks, or Interlibrary loans, our library has 60,437 items to loan out to its 7,992 members (up from 6,550 in 2004.) The most popular collection is Adult Fiction, which makes this author happy. (If I were in charge, I’d reserve a special place in Heaven for whoever invented the public library.)

In addition, the library provides meeting and study space, programs such as book clubs, crafts for all ages, and free movies. Programs are no longer required to have a literary theme. If a craft or movie is popular, they will incorporate it. Their most frequently used services by far are computers and wi-fi. After that, children’s programs, especially craft-related ones, are always popular.

Do you use our wonderful library to its fullest potential? 

It's My Party and You Can Come if You Want To

A party’s in the works, and you’re invited.

If you’ve ever read one of my blog posts (and you’re obviously reading at least part of this one), then you’re invited. Why? Because, as a reader of my blog, you have played an unwitting role in my quest toward becoming an author. After all, a writer is nothing without a reader, right? And this writer needs some readers to celebrate with, so it’s your party too.

Photo by G. Loewen Photography

On January 26, Waterfall Press will release my first novel, The Silver Suitcase. That evening at 6:30, I’m hosting a book launch party at the Portage Regional Library, 40 Royal Road North. Since I first sat down on January 4, 2009 to see if I could write a book, my journey to this day has been a long, roller-coaster ride. I’ve received more rejections than I care to keep track of and made more revisions than I can count. Through most of it, kind comments from readers have often been my inspiration to keep working at the writing craft. When Jessie, my agent, sold the manuscript to an honest-to-goodness paying publisher last February, I could hardly believe it. This month, before we even took our Christmas tree down, twelve boxes of books arrived on our doorstep. Now hubby’s complaining that our home is beginning to look like a warehouse. We need your help! And besides, I want to meet you and say thanks. (And maybe even sell you a book.)

The Silver Suitcase is primarily for lovers of inspirational women’s fiction, but the few men who have read it liked it, too. It’s a story of two women separated by three generations but connected by the secrets stored in an old silver suitcase…and one powerful, healing God who pursues them both.

If you’re not much of a reader, come for the homemade pie and ice cream. (Chosen because the book includes a funny story about pie and a reoccurring theme involving an antique ice cream maker.) If you don’t like pie, come for the live music (my dear friend and inspiration, Julianne Dick, on piano.) If you’re not into music, come for the fabulous door prizes. If you’re not into prizes, come to hear me read a brief snippet from the book. (And if you don’t like hearing me read, I’ll sell you the audiobook read by professional voice actor, Kate Rudd!) You’re under no obligation to buy a book, but if you want to, you can—for twenty bucks, cash or cheque. I’ll sign it and give a dollar for each book sold to our local Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

I’ve chosen this charity because the two main characters in my story grew up in single-parent homes and both could have benefitted from a mentor in their younger years. As Canada’s leading child and youth mentoring charity, Big Brothers/Big Sisters facilitates life-changing relationships that inspire and empower children and youth to reach their potential, both as individuals and citizens. Our Portage la Prairie chapter has been creating such friendships since 1974.

If you can’t make it to the launch at the library, ask for The Silver Suitcase at Heritage Book & Gift Shop, 1609 Saskatchewan Ave. West, or order online from Amazon: HERE if you live in Canada and HERE if you live in the United States. 

But I sure hope to see you at the party—January 26 from 6:30 until 8:00. You earned it!

Haven't you always wanted to read someone else's diary?

If, like me, you find other people’s diaries hard to resist, you’ll be happy to hear a brand new book released this week called Hutterite Diaries: Wisdom from My Prairie Community.

Author Linda Maendel lives on the Elm River Colony west of Oakville where she is an educational assistant at the colony’s school and spends her free time writing. Her articles have appeared in The Daily Graphic, The Central Plains Herald Leader, The Manitoba Cooperator, the Winnipeg Free Press, and Our Canada. This is not Linda’s first book, but it is the first I am able to read since the others are in German or Hutterisch—the language Linda speaks at home but which had never been used in written form until she tackled it for one of her children’s books.

Linda wrote Hutterite Diaries in English, and it’s so engaging, I finished it in two sittings. If you enjoy my blog posts, you will love Linda’s book. Her stories are more interesting than mine and she includes more photos! Linda knows how to combine ordinary slice-of-life events with bits of Hutterite history in a fascinating way. I found myself laughing in parts, crying in others, and definitely learning things I never knew. I could almost hear the beautiful harmonies of their German hymn-singing, smell the fresh bread baking, and see the colorful gardens Linda describes.

“I’m journaling about living on a Hutterite colony; each story or article is a glimpse of my communal life. Creating word pictures is like collecting treasures; it makes me take a closer look at things,” Linda said when given the opportunity to publish this book. The poignant story she tells in Chapter 4, A Circle Not Broken, is worth the price of the book all by itself for those who love incredible, goosebump-inducing “coincidences.”

Published by Herald Press, the book is part of the “Plainspoken” series, which gives voice to Anabaptist writers in a world where novels, tourist sites, and TV shows offer second-hand accounts of Amish, Mennonite, and Hutterite life—some of which are flat-out wrong.

You may also want to check out Linda’s blog at www.hutt-writevoice.blogspot.ca. Really? A Hutterite woman who blogs? As Linda says, “While other Hutterite women love to sew, I would rather write. It’s not something I have in common with many of my fellow Hutterites, but I’m fine with that. We have so many things in common that it’s okay to differ in some areas.”

Linda’s engaging style and skillful telling of these heartwarming stories will help you enter into life on a modern Hutterite colony while giving you glimpses into their rich and tumultuous history and their unwavering faith. Reading it gave me a deeper appreciation for and understanding of my Hutterite neighbours, and any time you can accomplish that, you assist in the work of God himself.

“We aren’t perfect,” Linda says, “but we have figured out a few things about how to live together in community and about what works and what doesn’t. Many experiments in Christian community have not lasted, and we are humbly grateful that our communities, with all their ongoing struggles, have remained strong and viable through all these centuries.”

The best way to own an autographed copy of this lovely book? Come to Linda’s book launch at the Portage Regional Library on Saturday, May 23, between 2:00 and 3:30 p.m. If you miss that event, “Hutterite Diaries” is available from Amazon.com or you can ask for it in bookstores.