Program promotes cultural understanding
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Shrewsbury - The Shrewsbury Public Library is gearing up to kick off its Big Read program, a reading incentive program that will include activities relating to Willa Cather's "My Antonia," a novel about several immigrant families who move to rural Nebraska and start new lives in America.

The program will consist of discussion groups, a storytelling workshop, student performances or readings, which will be presented to various community groups, as well as opportunities for people to share their own immigrant stories.

Shrewsbury Public Library Director Ellen Dolan said the goal of the program is to increase understanding and acceptance of people's histories while inviting people who may not be familiar with the library in to be a part of this program and many others.

"The program really builds a bridge for learning about each other and our diff erent cultures and experiences, and really speaks to the idea that it is okay to talk about how we came to be here, whether it was generations ago or just last week," Dolan said.

Other Big Read activities will be open for children and families, including a "Frontier Day," with crafts, games, music and examples of necessary frontier skills and chores; a screening of the film "My Antonia;" a workshop on genealogy and writing the immigrant story; and games from other countries, such as bocce and soccer, that have been brought here by immigrants.

A group bus trip to Ellis Island, with a tour of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, will wrap up the two-month program.

Dolan said she really hopes that the program will not only provide an understanding and appreciation of diff erent cultures, but will also provide healing to a community that has found itself divided.

"A community reading project could help heal some of the divisions created by a very difficult tax referendum vote held this past year for municipal and school operating budgets," Dolan said. "Parties on both sides of the issue worked hard to promote their views … [but] now that the vote is over, this kind of inclusive and positive community project could help bring people back to common pride in the community."

The Big Read Program is being funded partially by grant money and by local organizations, including the Shrewsbury School Department, the Shrewsbury Council on Aging, the Friends of the Shrewsbury Public Library and the Shrewsbury Parks and Recreation Department.

Dolan said there is no way she could have arranged such an extensive community project without the help of others.

"Right now I think there's so much pressure to make do with so few resources … but together we're able to put together a project we never could have done alone," she said. "It's all possible because of the coordinated eff ort of so many."

A Big Read Coordinating Committee is being formed, and Dolan said she hopes many diff erent cultural groups as well as currently inactive library users will join to make sure that all groups are represented.

The first committee meeting will be held on Jan. 31 at the Shrewsbury Senior Center at 7 p.m. It is open to anyone who would like to be a part of implementing the Big Read Program, which kicks off on April 5.