Women’s health library opened with gala event Warm, welcoming atmosphere important to center

MILBRIDGE – The Women’s Health Resource Library’s gala opening Friday was all that a “feel-good” event should be – especially for a place where feeling good is often an outcome of a visit.

The new, 1,000-square-foot library is housed in a comfortable, brightly colored addition to the Milbridge Medical Center at 24 School St. The library contains 500 books, videos, magazines and newsletters on health care topics.

The reference collection is only the beginning. Monthly talks and regular gatherings of topic-specific groups are being offered as part of the community-oriented library’s mission.

“There is nothing sterile or medical about this,” Christine Kuhni, the center’s resident women’s health nurse practitioner, commented, mingling among the guests.

Kuhni conceived the health resource library, but the project has taken four years to fulfill. The library has been open in a quiet way since February. Friday’s event was the official announcement to the community at large that it’s fully open for business.

The gala’s guests – mostly women – flowed in. Cynthia Huggins, president of the University of Maine at Machias, drove 28 miles in a rainstorm to attend. More than 50 people signed the guestbook, and dozens more didn’t even know it was there.

On a table decorated with tulips, delicate desserts made anyone caring about calories dive in with abandon. They were all donated by area restaurants and individuals, from Steuben to Machias.

Women chatted. Some were visiting the library for the first time. Others already feel at home there, maybe having attended one of the series of talks offered this month on parenting.

Everyone was delighted with the library, which features a wall of windows overlooking Narraguagus Bay, and is clean and well-lighted.

Mary Margaret O’Dowd, who is president of the library’s board of directors, was beaming.

“It’s all very exciting,” she said.

The library has regular business hours – weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and hours extended to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Staffers hope the community embraces it as a place where good things happen, such as learning, sharing and feeling better. Library users can linger on comfortable seats and sofas, or else check out materials for two weeks at a time.

The grand opening comes on the heels of more good news for bard members who handle the library’s fundraising. A generous grant of $10,000 has been made by the Washington County Drug Action Committee. That money will be used to respond to substance abuse issues.

The library has drawn significant financial support from the start. The library-friendly Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation contributed $25,000 after plans for the library were launched and fundraising began in 2003.

In January, the library received a $25,000 gift from Milbridge’s biggest business, the blueberry processor Jasper Wyman and Son.

The Women’s Health Resource Library is intended strictly for women, but a few times a year, a “men’s night” will allow men to learn more about women’s health.

“Women are the ones who make the health decisions in their families,” O’Dowd said. “But we want men to know more, too.”