The Lanpher Memorial Library is entering in to our 110th year serving Hyde Park.
Here are some highlights of 2025. Programs, partnerships, successes and more.
January 2025:
We partnered with the Lamoille Neighbors to present a virtual visit with Bill McKibbon called "Back to the Wall, Face to the Sun: Where we stand on the climate fight". Over 50 people tuned in to listen and ask questions. You can see the recording by visiting our "Links & Other Community Resources" page.
We continued our once/month out reach visits to Round Hill Child Care Center in North Hyde Park. Each month we drop of bins of books for them to borrow, and stay to read a few stories together.
We started up our annual Red Clover Book Award Discussion series for homeschooling families with children ages K-4th grade, and added a Golden Dome Book Discussion for children 4-8th grade. These award programs encourage students to read and explore books on the list and vote for their favorites in the spring. These children choice book awards programs have been a Vermont tradition for many years, and we love giving home school students the chance to take part.
February 2025:
Together with the Lamoille Family Center, we received a Literacy Grant from the Morrisville Rotary and held a CHICKEN SOUP WITH RICE event at the Hyde Park Elementary School Gym. Inspired by Maurice Sendak's book and Carole King's song, children who attended got to choose two brand new books to keep, plus fun writing utensils and blank notebooks for writing in. There was a Chicken Soup with Rice StoryWalk® set up around the gym, a sing-a-long with Lesley Grant, and of course hot chicken soup with rice to enjoy donated by MoCo. It was a perfect event for a cold, blustery February day!
The Library held our annual Mystery Ingredient Challenge in February. The program is designed for 4-8th grade, but younger kids can join too! Young chefs sign up in advance, and receive a bag of 4 mystery ingredients to take home. They have a week to create a dish using the mystery ingredients and others from their own pantries. (We offer grocery store gift cards, no questions asked to supplement the supplies for families). Kids send a picture of their completed dish, along with a recipe card and taste tester evaluation. Each kid who completes the challenge gets a fun prize. Visit this page on our website to see the photos of all of our past challenges! https://www.lanpherlibrary.org/mystery-ingredient-challenge.htmlwww.lanpherlibrary.org/mystery-ingredient-challenge.html
March 2025:
We held our SPRING CLEANING BOOK SALE!
A full week of selling books by donation will happen again this year on March 23-28, 2026 during our open hours.
April 2025:
We kicked off National Library Week on Sunday, April 6th with a Lamoille County Libraries partnership event. We showed the documentary, "Free for All: The Public Library", at Vermont State University, Johnson Campus. The event brought in viewers from all over Vermont and our panel with Kendra Aber Ferri of the Morristown Centennial Library, Aurora River then from the Varnum Memorial Library (and now Director of Johnson Public Library), Catherine Delneo Commissioner and State Librarian; and Mary Danko, President of the Vermont Library Association made up the panel discussion facilitated by Amy Olsen.
May 2025:
We held our annual Wishtree day on Thursday, May 1st. Throughout May and June, we invite folks from the community to write wishes on scraps of fabric and tie them to the branches of the oak tree in front of the library. Based on the book Wishtree, by Katherine Applegate, our oak tree holds the wishes of our community for months. The wishes are heart warming and heart breaking and can be for anything your heart desires.
Hyde Park Elementary School's Art Walk took place in May. The Lanpher Library held an exhibit in our Community Room and families were able to stop in the Library to view student artwork as part of the school/community art collaboration.
At the Vermont Library Conference in May, I (Amy Olsen) was awarded with the Sarah C. Hagar Award for distinguished service and significant contributions to the Lanpher Library and the field of Librarianship in Vermont.
June 2025:
The Hyde Park Energy & Conservation Committee wrote a grant to help town buildings with ways to be more efficient. A new mini-split was installed upstairs in the Library as part of this grant. Now, the upstairs is as nice and cool as the rest of the building in the summertime!
July 2025:
Summer Reading was underway, and our annual Children's Literacy Foundation (CLiF) book giveaway was an exciting author visit with Lorian Tu! She got kids excited about reading and each child in attendance got to choose 2 brand new, free books to keep!
Our annual partnership with our good neighbors at the Johnson Public Library continued this summer bringing Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS), and the Lamoille Family Center joined in on the collaboration to bring No Strings Marionette Company too.
Friend of the Library member, Jack Wool, entertained our Night Owl Story Time Friends on July 7th the Tanabata Festival night in Japan with Kamishibai Theater presentation.
We sponsored a Sneak Peek of the Lamoille County Players summer show "Meet Me in St. Louis". Actors, Directors, Choreographers and Costumers entertained and informed us about how a show comes together! Look forward to more Lamoille Co. Players/Lanpher Library partnerships in 2026, including a sneak peek of the Addams Family on June 1st at 6:00.
The Lanpher Library held our 3rd Annual Trivia Night at the Gihon Valley Hall! Teams were made up of families, friends, committee members, and a honeymooning couple from out of state who just happened upon our Trivia Night! Although there was a team with the most points, all teams win something!
August 2025:
In July we started a monthly series of programs at Sterling View Community Center. July was a Green Cleaning hands-on workshop with Lamoille Regional Solid Waste Management District. In August we had Vermont Historian Amanda Gustin come to talk about Justin Morgan's Horse. Jumping ahead, in September we have VINS come with live owls, and October a talk from Hyde Park's own Susan Moore about hearing loss and voice change as we age. November brought VT author, speaker, historian Howard Coffin to discuss the Great Bennington Battle.
September 2025:
Hyde Park Home Day brought our annual book sale on the Library lawn and a fantastic celebration of Hyde Park!
The Lanpher Library had our inaugural Cookbook Book Club! Join us for the once/month book club, where participants discuss a cook book and make recipes to bring in and share! The space smells amazing on the last Saturday of each month at 11:00a.m. If you want to join, reach out to Nicole: [email protected]
October 2025:
Caldecott award winning author and illustrator, Jason Chin came to the Library, He did 2 presentations so that every student at Hyde Park Elementary School was able to walk to the Library and meet him, hear about his books and how he creates them. This was sponsored by a grant from the Green Mt. Fund, but was inspired by an original donation from Betty and Norman Andrews. The original donation was given to us to host a visit with HPES students and a Vermont author. Over the years, we've used the donation to host visits with Jim Arnosky, Josh Funk, Kate Messner, and Kekla Magoon. We hope to continue the legacy of Norman and Betty and find ways to pay for more author visits moving forward.
We held our annual Pumpkin Carving contest! With a sponsorship from Susan Martin Century 21 Realty, we offer free pumpkins (while supplies last) or folks can use their own...and have prizes for different age categories, including Best in Show! Our Best in Show winner 2025 has been participating in the contest for years and was SO excited to win.
Alyx the Magician kept us entertained while the judges did the judging, and an amazing treasure hunt sent us all around the Village of Hyde Park to find fun Halloween packets of goodies.
November 2025:
In November we gave our Annual Awards in a lovely ceremony.
The Spirit of Community Awards were given to Sharon & Jack Anderson, and Susan Bartlett. The Legacy Awards were given in memory of Alma Draper and Lois McGee. Learn more about our awards and recipients on our page:
https://www.lanpherlibrary.org/annual-community-awards.htmlwww.lanpherlibrary.org/annual-community-awards.html
While the Lanpher Library didn't have too many extra programs in the month of November, our space was used a lot! 32 times by 14 different groups and organizations!
December 2025:
Oh what fun it is to carol throughout Hyde Park Village! A group of merry singers started out at the Library and sang throughout the village. The Hyde Park Fire Department timed the tour of their truck...decked with lights...to coincide with the carolers heading out, so we were greeted with joy and lights from the start...and ended up warming up with cocoa and cookies back at the Library.
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