RED BANK: CHROMEBOOKS ON LOAN AT LIBRARY
The Red Bank Public Library has added Chromebooks to the information technology available for borrowing by patrons.
RED BANK: FAMILIES PACK DRAG READING
With supporters standing on the porch outside, drag queen Harmonica Sunbeam, above, entertained about two dozen families who packed a children’s story time at the Red Bank Public Library Monday evening.
RED BANK: SLURS HURLED AT EVENT ATTENDEES
A handful of protesters shouted “pedophile” and other slurs at Red Bank Public Library patrons as they arrived for a childrens’ “Drag Queen Story Hour” event Wednesday morning, library Director Elenyi Glykis told redbankgreen.
RBR: STUDENTS BOOST BRIDGE OF BOOKS
National Honor Society members read to young students and gave each a care packages of books. (Click to enlarge.)
Members of the National Honor Society at Red Bank Regional High School recently completed a drive to provide Read Across America care packages to students at Red Bank borough preschools.
The project was “amazing,” said TJ Eyerman, a senior who serves as NHS president. But it also underscored the needs of the Rumson-based Bridge of Books Foundation, he said.
FAIR HAVEN: TOWN HALL GOES REMOTE AGAIN
Fair Haven’s borough hall and library share the same building on River Road. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
UPDATE: On Tuesday, Little Silver announced it was closing all borough buildings to public access starting Wednesday and until further notice. Details can be found here.
By JOHN T. WARD
Amid a steep rise in positive COVID-19 tests, Fair Haven has put its government and public library at arms-length for the second time in the pandemic.
RED BANK: LOCAL PHOTOS AT LIBRARY
The Red Bank Public Library has mounted a display of images by borough resident and photographer Allan Bass.
RED BANK: GRANT BOOSTS LIBRARY WIFI
Scenes from the recent installation of enhanced wifi at the library. (Click to enlarge.)
Press release from the Red Bank Public Library
The Red Bank Public Library has been selected as one of 27 libraries and was recently awarded $10,000 of grant funding by The NJ State Library to
support the CARES ACT Mini-Grant for Public Libraries.
The grant award supplemented the cost of an improved WiFi system that is now strong enough to provide service to anyone on the library grounds, inside or outside the building.
RED BANK: LIBRARY REOPENS, WITH LIMITS
Make an appointment, show up and ring the doorbell for admission. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Easing its way out of the pandemic of 2020-2021, the Red Bank Public Library began allowing visitors into the West Front Street institution for the first time in more than a year Monday.
The new reality, however, requires appointments, masks, limits on usage and self-checkouts, among other limitations.
RED BANK: LIBRARY NIXES LATE FINES
Late getting that book or DVD back to the Red Bank Public Library? Not to worry. Fines for overdue materials are now a relic of the past.
RED BANK: LIBRARY SETS PARTIAL REOPENING
Closed to public access by the COVID-19 pandemic since March, the Red Bank Public Library plans partial reopening starting Monday, September 28.
RED BANK: PHOTO BOOK AT VISITOR CENTER
A Red Bank man has self-published a book of photos taken around town that’s now available for purchase at the Red Bank Visitor Center.
Allan Bass’ collection, titled ‘Red Bank Living,’ features shots taken from the spring of 2018 through December, 2019.
It’s being sold for $15 at the Red Bank visitor center, located at 140 Broad Street. (Photos by Allan Bass.)
RED BANK: LIBRARY PLANS PUBLIC SURVEY
The library, which opened in the onetime home of manufacturer Sigmund Eisner in 1937, is now looking ahead to 2026. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank Public Library plans to solicit public input as it develops a new five-year strategic plan, its board of trustees announced Thursday. More →
RED BANK: STORY WALK GETS AN UPGRADE
Along with the weekly summer movie, Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank now features a permanent installation of the Story Walk pathway instituted by the borough library. And it’s gotten an upgrade from its first two editions.
RED BANK: LIBRARY DIRECTOR CHECKS OUT
Red Bank library staff and patrons held a sendoff party last week for the retirement of director Elizabeth McDermott, seen above speaking with public utilities director Cliff Keen.
Monmouth County Freeholder John Curley, a former Red Bank councilman, presented McDermott with a county proclamation recognizing her for, among other accomplishments, leading the library through the most turbulent period in its 81-year history.
RED BANK: LIBRARY DIRECTOR TO RETIRE
Elizabeth McDeromott, center, at the 2015 Red Bank Mayor’s Ball. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Elizabeth McDermott, who guided the Red Bank Public Library through perhaps the most turbulent chapter of its 81-year history, will retire at the end of June.
An ex-software industry consultant who changed careers well into adulthood, McDermott announced her retirement in the spring issue of the library’s newsletter, out this week.
LITTLE SILVER: IMMIGRATION POET VISITS RBR
Award-winning British poet Caroline Smith (at far right in photo) made Red Bank Regional a special stop on her book tour for “The Immigration Handbook.” She was invited to the school by RBR alumnus Rik van Hemmen (at left), and joined for the occasion by students Bella Scheider (Union Beech), Jack Davis (Little Silver), and Tamia Waddy (Red Bank).
Press release from Red Bank Regional High School
At its September 27 board meeting, the Award-winning British Poet Caroline Smith came to the United States recently on a tour to promote her latest work The Immigration Handbook — and along the way, she did a dear friend a favor and came to talk to his alma mater, Red Bank Regional High School.
RBR alumnus Rik van Hemmen told the assembled students, which included Creative Writing, International Baccalaureate and English AP classes as well as English Language Learners, of his own experiences coming to this school and country as an immigrant back in the 1970s. More →
RED BANK: ARTISTS HONOR ONE OF THEIR OWN
Colleagues in creativity plan to honor the late artist Terry McCue, above, with a bench that overlooks the Navesink River from the Red Bank Public Library, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
To honor of one of their own, the members of a long-standing monthly art class at the Red Bank Public Library plan to install a bench on the institution’s grounds overlooking the Navesink River.
First, they’re selling their own work to fund it.
FAIR HAVEN: BEACH READ ON RIVER ROAD
Best-selling novelist Patti Callahan Henry comes to River Road Books Wednesday with her latest, ‘The Bookshop at Water’s End.’
The swimsuits and summer gear may have already been supplanted on store shelves by back-to-school items and other mellow-harshing signifiers of autumn’s advance, but at River Road Books in Fair Haven, the season of the “summer read” remains very much in effect, with more than enough sun-dappled and seabreeze-kissed titles to fuel a thousand oceanfront excursions.
The last bastion of independently owned bookstores on the Greater Red Bank Green continues its decade-plus history of guest-author appearances when best-selling novelist Patti Callahan Henry drops by Wednesday evening with something of an affirmation that summer, and its literary contents, remain alive and well.
RED BANK: BOOKMARKS MARK FAVORITES
St. James first-grader Declan Duffy chose to draw Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn as his favorite place in town, above. Below, the other winners by grade. (Click to enlarge)
[Press release from the Friends of the Red Bank Public Library]
The Sixth Annual Friends oft he Red Bank Public Library Bookmark Contest has announced this year’s winners! At a well-attended party on May 20, the Friends presented the winners with certificates and gift cards to local businesses.
RED BANK: SCHOOL TO GET 500 BOOKS
Supporting the development and enhancement of student reading skills, First Lady Mary Pat Christie announced today that Red Bank Primary School in Red Bank is receiving 500 books as part of the 11th annual Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. Last year, 43 Governors’ Spouses, Governors and Lieutenant Governors participated as Reading Ambassadors for the summer program.
RED BANK: LIBRARY MARKS PAST, EYES FUTURE
The heirs of manufacturer Sigmund Eisner donated his West Front Street mansion to the library, which opened there on April 15, 1937. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Continuing its comeback from a period of drastic retrenchment, the Red Bank Public Library plans a celebration of the borough’s past Saturday with the reopening of the Local History Room, which was put off-limits due to staff cuts three years ago.
The second-floor room’s return to part-time action is one piece of a daylong schedule of events to mark the institution’s 80th year in its home overlooking our beautiful Navesink River.
LITTLE SILVER: LIBRARY BOOK SALE RETURNS
The Friends of the Little Silver Public Library plan to hold their annual sidewalk book sale over two days next week.
ON THE GREEN: AUTHORS SERVE UP MEMORIES
George Severini of Dorn’s Classic Images (above left) joins co-author Rick Geffken for a Thursday evening presentation keyed to their book “Lost Amusement Parks of the North Jersey Shore.”
A must-see presentation on some of the most fondly remembered attractions of our local Shore — and not one but two encore appearances by a best-selling beach-read favorite — are booked in this Thursday, May 11 for galloping gourmets and nostalgia buffs alike.
It begins tomorrow afternoon at Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn, during the Fourth Annual Scholarship Luncheon for the Northern Monmouth County Branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women) — an affair at which members of the community are invited to join in an afternoon filled with fun, good food and the opportunity to hear from the New York Times bestselling author, Mary Kay Andrews.
RED BANK: FAMOUS AUTHOR COOKS UP LUNCH
Press release from the Northern Monmouth County Branch of AAUW
On May 11, the Northern Monmouth County Branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women) will hold its Fourth Annual Scholarship Luncheon at the Molly Pitcher Inn.
Members of the community are invited to join in an afternoon filled with fun, good food and the opportunity to hear from the New York Times bestselling author, Mary Kay Andrews. The Georgia-based creator of numerous popular mysteries and other novels set in beach and coastal communities, Ms. Andrews will share stories about how she came to be an author, and how she decided to write her latest book, The Beach House Cookbook.
FAIR HAVEN KIDS MEET THE AUTHOR
Children’s author Patricia Polacco with Sickles School third graders during her recent visit to the Fair Haven School District.
Press release from Fair Haven School District
She is the writer and illustrator of over 115 books, including Keeping Quilt, Babushka’s Doll, The Dream Keeper, My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, Chicken Sunday (a 1994 President’s Commendation Medal winner), and Welcome Comfort. Her Thank You Mr. Falker was awarded the 1999 Best Book Award by the Association of Dyslexic and Learning Disabled Readers — and in 2013, the Library of Congress and the President of the United States recognized her book Pink and Say as one of the best books written for children in the past 100 years.
A wish came true last week, when New York Times bestselling children’s book author Patricia Polacco paid a special two-day visit to the Fair Haven school district.
Students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades at Knollwood School spent quality time with the author during presentations on April 3, while Polacco’s visit to Viola L. Sickles School on April 4 included lunch with two students chosen by lottery from each third grade class, along with their teachers.