Recap of Recaps: February 20–February 27

Check out these recaps from some wonderful programming that took place across the system between February 20–February 27. Post Road had a quite a turnout for the Facts in Fiction program which provided some great context ahead of the upcoming Forsyth Reads Together author event!

A display of items used in daily Native American life
attracts curious patrons

Bookmobile visitors at Pine Ridge choose a prize
for completing the scavenger hunt

Facts in Fiction: Tennessee Children’s Home Society at Post Road Library

28 adults

"Professor Heather Murray from UNG gave an educational and passionate presentation on the history of the Tennessee Children's Home Society, which started in 1897 as a nonprofit organization designed to help needy children until they were adopted or reached the age of eighteen. Georgia Tann originally wanted to be a lawyer and even

passed the Mississippi bar exam, but her father said that law was no place for a woman. She decided to work at the local branch of the Tennessee Children's Home Society, transferring to the Memphis branch in 1924. It was there that she spent the next twenty-five years selling 5,000 children through illegal adoptions. It only cost seven dollars for parents adopting a child, but Tann brought in as much as $5,000 ($90,000 with today's inflation) for some children, particularly those out-of-state. Babies were considered hot commodities, while she sold older children as manual labor. Hundreds of children would die from abuse and malnutrition. She would destroy and alter thousands of the children's records, making it impossible for those children to figure out who their birth families were. She got away with this because she was able to use the law to her advantage, had several judges in her pocket, and was famous for being the friendly crusader of adoption nationwide. It wasn't until 1949 when a social worker found the infant mortality rate at the hospitals Tann would visit were suspiciously high and got the newly elected governor to investigate in 1951. Unfortunately, Tann died before charges were brought before her, and none of her confidants were prosecuted. Tennessee's “The Right to Know" helped hundreds of Tann's victims find their biological families. A patron told us that growing up in Memphis she couldn't get her family to talk or acknowledge what Georgia Tann did because she was a local celebrity at the time.” –hosted by Ashley Mason

Bookmobile Visit to Pine Ridge

31 children/teens, 13 adults

“A couple months ago we decided to divide up one of our largest stops into two separate stops on the same day. It has worked out splendidly. We have been able to serve more kids in one of the largest mobile home communities in Forsyth county. The kids at Pine Ridge are always excited to see what crafts and activities we have; in addition to a great selection of their favorite books. The most popular activity is our monthly scavenger hunt!! We have a number of adults at this stop that look forward to our visits, as well.”–contributed by Christine Conroy

Hands-On History - Native American Life at Cumming Library 

79 children, 27 adults

“Kathy Church from Smithgall Woods presented an amazing program on Native American life, focusing specifically on life in our area, the North Georgia mountains. She compared our daily routine to a day thousands of years ago. People still got dressed, ate food, brushed their hair, but how they did it looked a little different! She walked us through how people gathered, grew, and hunted food, how they fixed their hair and made clothes, how they lived, and constructed houses. She even discussed how they did school and what they did for fun in the evenings. Kathy Church is an engaging presenter, asking questions, encouraging kids to talk and guess, and getting lots of laughs too. She demonstrated the use of a bone drill to start fires, fired a blowgun into our imaginary rabbit (a cardboard box), and played the variety of instruments she brought along. We also got to hear a Cherokee creation tale, with some assistance from volunteers from the audience to hold props. A fun fact: the American Chestnut tree went extinct because of a disease, but Smithgall has seven 100% American Chestnut trees that have been brought back through decades of work!” –hosted by Kaity Bowers

Illustrators Academy at Hampton Park Library

4 children, 2 adults

"We had a small group brave our stormy weather to attend Illustrator's Academy today about mosaics as an artform. Our inspiration for today's program was the book, Z is for Zebra: a Mosaic Menagerie by Judith Caseley, which features illustrations of different animals made up of beautiful and intricate mosaics. The illustrator was inspired by a restaurant in California that showcased beautiful mosaics on the walls and floors. I explained what a mosaic is, gave a bit of history, and shared some pictures of different types and styles of mosaics. We then got to work creating some paper mosaics. The materials were simple and included construction paper, glue, and scissors. Our young illustrators worked diligently, creating a couple of fish, a bird, and even a video game character. The patience and focus needed for this type of artwork can be challenging but all of our participants left with a piece that they were very proud of. One parent shared that this is her child's favorite library program which was such encouraging feedback.” –hosted by Leanne Craig

Conversational English at Sharon Forks Library

5 adults

"Today we had four returning attendees and one new visitor. Countries represented were Tibet, Korea, Turkey, and India. Our topic focus was “home” and we started by asking if people would rather do the cooking or the cleaning. Most people seemed to prefer cleaning so we have a tidy group! We asked about new words and the term “remote working” was brought up so we discussed what that meant as well as the other meaning of “remote.” Someone else mentioned the word "toodles" which we thought was cute and had fun explaining. After some tongue twisters, most of our time was spent on vocabulary today playing the A-Z game. The group thought of words starting with each letter that could be found in a home. We had some good suggestions for challenging letters and everyone offered at least a few words during the game. We finished up the hour talking about home and what their favorite spot was in their home, whether they have neutrals or colors in their home, whether they had house plants, and what is popular in their home country. Apparently no one has a green thumb in this group because no one had house plants. Everyone participated and seemed to enjoy the game.” –hosted by Arlene Melton