Peacham Library Report for 2025
“A library is a house of hope. It’s a place where we all, whatever our situation, can feed our ideas and develop our dreams.” – Doug Wilhelm
Over 8,500 people visited Peacham Library during our past fiscal year! The library hosted over 250 programs and events throughout the year for all ages, attended by over 3,400 people. Our regular programs included weekly Coffee Hour, Story Time, Meditation Hour, Tai Chi, French Conversation and monthly meetings of Readers Delight, Photographers Gatherings, and “Aging Well in Peacham”. Our Winter Coffeehouse Series featured Jim Karnes, Alive and Well, and Dana Robinson. Gilmore Gallery featured exhibits which included displays of works by Jennifer, Meg Morrow Clayton, CCSU Students, Dean Bornstein, Abigail Bartell.
This year Karen Gordon has joined the staff to lead our weekly story time. Classes from the Elementary School walked up for library visits a few times during the year, including a visit from children’s author and illustrator David Covell. We have shared books and crafts at some Farmers Markets and hosted our ever popular T-shirt tie-dyeing event on our back porch. Thanks to a grant from the Vermont Department of Libraries and along with PTF, we sponsored a program for the whole school featuring Dinoman and dinosaurs so large we had to meet in the Town Hall gym!
This summer we partnered with the Peacham Historical Association to present this year’s Summer Series “What’s Cooking?”. It was great fun and very popular. Lucas Diggle, from King Arthur Baking Company spoke about how the modernization and mass-production baking changed the taste and texture of bread. Writer/researcher Erin Moulton took us through her research process in exploring the recipes found in community cookbooks to uncover the lives of the women who contributed them. Our showstopper of the summer was our Heirloom Baking Contest with sweets made using cherished Peacham cookbooks or personal family recipes. All the results were beautiful and delicious.
In the fall the baking skills of most of Peacham we once again served up at the pie stop for the Annual Fall Fondo. Over 90 pies were contributed to this event this year. After the riders, we sold the pies as a fundraiser for the library. Thank you, bakers! We hosted John Aberth, a wildlife rehabilitator and author of “Bringing Up Beaver”, his story about 2 years of raising a beaver kit to return to the wild. Our final event of the year was the Holiday High Tea, filled with good food, good cheer and good neighbors.
We circulated over 8,000 items including those borrowed through Libby (eBooks and audiobooks) and Biblio+ and Kanopy (movies). We fulfilled over 600 special requests from patrons, providing books and movies from other libraries.
The Town Selectboard, Planning Commission, Development Review Board, Cemetery Committee, Peacham Community Housing, PFD #1, Peacham Historical Association, School Board, Peacham Congregational Church, Peacham Corner Guild, Peacham Children’s Center and the Republican Caucus, all held meetings at the library.
If you haven’t stopped in lately, please plan to visit us soon! Peacham Library exists because of you, our community. Thank you for all you do to help us bring the library and its resources to you. Thank you, too, for your generosity and support at Town Meeting and throughout the year.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Smolinsky, Director
Peacham Library’s 2025 Annual Report released on on July 14, 2025 at the Annual Meeting