Community storytelling pathway opens at Hunt Library

FALLS VILLAGE — On a brisk February morning Saturday, Feb 17, Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library, cut the ribbon on the “Village Voices: A Community Storytelling Pathway” installation on the library lawn.

The Village Voices project includes stories, poems and artwork from community organizations including the Falls Village Daycare, the Lee H. Kellogg School, and the Falls Village Equity Project. The outdoor displays are digitally linked with additional content on the library’s website.

The outdoor displays include Julia Orff’s recollections of her grandparents modeling for painter Norman Rockwell; Carol Taylor’s “A Closeup View of an African-American Family in the Segregated South”; a discussion of slavery in and around Falls Village from Lee H. Kellogg School students; and the story of Milo Freeland of Sheffield, who was the first African American to enlist in the U.S. Army in the Civil War and who is buried in East Canaan (from the Falls Village-Canaan Historical Society).

It was cold out, so after giving the pathway its due, everybody trooped inside for hot drinks, cookies and conversation.

The crowd included Nina Safane, executive director of Libraries Without Borders, who was pleased that her organization’s mission of expanding and enhancing library assets and community connections synchronized with the Hunt’s strategic plan.

She said the Hunt Library was one of six in the state chosen for the project.

The state librarian, Deborah Schander, was also on hand. She said the Connecticut State Library’s mission is, at its core, to “preserve the history of the state on behalf of its citizens.”

Asked how she found herself in the job, she laughed and said she grew up in a household of readers, and that an aptitude test revealed she should be either a librarian or a drill instructor.

Part of Schander’s job involves finding funding for projects such as Village Voices. In this case, the project was made possible in part by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the federal Library Services and Technology Act, as administered by the State Library.