LV Book Club
Book Club
By Tyler Weaber
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss
For many years Londonderry Village has a had a wonderful partnership with the Palmyra Library. Each year our community sponsors one of the library events, and in return the library delivers books for our residents to enjoy year round.
Four years ago, the Village decided to change the way our residents enjoy reading by creating a monthly book club. This was a way for our residents, who enjoy diving into a good story, can read and discuss amongst some of their fellow friends.
As we always strive to grow our partnerships within the local community, Mary Lee Harpel, our Director of Resident Services, decided to approach Lebanon Valley College to see if they would like to join us in this new venture. For 3 years, students in the education program at LVC would come to our campus and help select books for our resident to read so they could showcase new genres of books to our elders. In return, our residents would also select books they found interesting for the LVC students to read. It was a wonderful cross generational event. They would meet once a month to discuss the stories in their entirety and dive into the plotline.
As student teaching assignments and college senior schedules continued to be more demanding it became too hard for LVC students to come to our campus to attend this activity. However, Londonderry Village residents have continued this exciting book club. The LV Book Club, which runs from September to June (skipping December), allows our residents to come together, explore new story lines and meet new characters.
Each month is a specific book title for each resident to read. They split into groups of 4 taking turns reading a few shared books throughout the month. During the summer break they take a bus trip to either the Hummelstown, Hershey or Palmyra Library to learn about several book suggestions. From the book summaries the group votes as the most interesting to put on their book list for the new year. The library visits allow a wonderful time to explore so many new books guided by the librarian’s assistance.
Chelsea Weibley, the Executive Director of the Palmyra Library contacted Mary Lee Harpel to tell her about a new exciting grant that was created titled “The Bishop Foundation.” This grant was created to encourage community members amongst all age ranges to read more. The book they chose this year was titled “The Bakers Secret.” Under the request of Mary Lee, we applied and were granted the funding. This allowed our book club to receive 5 copies of this new book for our members to enjoy.
Our LV Book Club meets on the 4th Monday of every month at 4:00 pm. They take time out of their busy lives to dive into the beautiful words from a variety of authors. If you are interested in joining our book club you may contact Mary Lee Harpel at (717) 838-5406 ext. 3186.
