Airline Library to hold grand opening Oct. 25

AURORA – The Airline Community Library is ready for its grand opening at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25. After five years of community effort, the addition to Airline Community School housing a community and school library will open its doors. The students who helped with the original grant are almost finished with high school now, said Tracy O’Connell, who now teaches in Old Town.

Meanwhile, residents of Aurora, Amherst, Great Pond and Osborn have been busy raising funds and planning for the building of the library.

O’Connell started out in fall 2001 working on service learning projects with her class of sixth- to eighth-graders. They catalogued graves at old community cemeteries and delivered canned goods to the “Mike and Mike” radio show, riding on the school bus to deliver the food.

But O’Connell wanted a project that was more meaningful and pupil-directed. The pupils were avid readers and teachers worked tirelessly to bring to school enough new books for them to read. The class decided to conduct a book drive to increase the school’s holdings and partnered with The Briar Patch bookstore in Bangor. The Sunbury Group and the Altrusa Club also donated books.

Applying for a grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, the pupils and O’Connell spent many classes writing a script, taping scenes of the school and discussing how to get the message across that they cared for their community and wanted to help establish a library.

In May 2002 O’Connell accepted a job at a school in Old Town, leaving the project in others’ capable hands.

Then the Airline School got a call from the King Foundation saying that the school would receive a $50,000 grant. Meetings were held to establish a committee to implement a new library, but organizers soon realized that the grant wasn’t enough to cover the cost of the building, architect Stewart Bricker of Mount Desert Island, and other planning costs.

Local communities raised more than $13,000, and a library committee was formed – O’Connell, Louise Larson, Les Hutchinson, Karen Bridges, Julie Whitney, Donna Aleksiewicz, Andrew Bryan, Sharyn Chiavaroli, Bret Achorn, Kathy Cobb, Joni Archer, Roger Waterman and Ben Goodwin. Other community members assisted, as well.

O’Connell applied again to the King Foundation in 2005 and the school and communities were delighted to receive another $50,000.

Les Hutchinson, local contractor and committee member, was hired. Many volunteers helped with the project, including library volunteers Janelle Jones and Ginny Wong-Achorn.

“The community library still has needs,” O’Connell said, “but we are pleased to open and begin our work in serving the reading public. The library is beautiful. We are moving our library books from the school to the library building itself. There have been donations over the years that we are cataloging and working on.”

Valerie Osborne, regional library director, added ideas on how to proceed.

The grand opening of the Airline Community Library will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25. Activities will include light refreshments, tours and a brief talk. It is hoped that a donor plaque, artwork and an interesting library circulation desk will be installed by then, as well.

Raffle tickets for a quilt made by Louise Larson and an afghan made by Lenore Trippler are still available. Proceeds will benefit the new library. Call the Airline School at 584-3012 for more information.