Library Celebrations Are Heating Up

With Auction And Raffle Tickets Going On Sale

By Shannon Hicks

Plans are starting to really come into place for a black-tie gala being planned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of C.H. Booth Library this fall.

Kathy Geckle is chairing a committee of nine people who are planning a special evening, “Diamonds in the Sky,” to be held at Rock Ridge Country Club Saturday, September 29. The event will include passed hors d’oeuvres, Tuscan table and dessert, cash bar, and a live auction of 14 hand-painted stars. Reverend Robert Weiss, pastor of St Rose of Lima Church, will serve as the evening’s auctioneer.

There will also be a raffle that evening of a freeform contemporary-style diamond pendant designed by Gem Jewelry in Danbury. The pendant is currently on view at the jewelry store, and will go home with one lucky winner on September 29.

Auction tickets are $100 each and will be going on sale shortly after the library’s annual used book sale. Proceeds from the gala will be used to purchase a digital audio-visual projector to augment lectures, discussions, movies, and PowerPoint presentations in the library’s Olga Knoepke Memorial Meeting Room.

In the months leading up to the gala, committee members will also be selling tickets for a four-prize raffle. These $10 tickets are on sale now at the library, and will also be available during the Friends of C.H. Booth Library Annual Used Book Sale (June 30–July 4 at Reed Intermediate School). There are just 1,000 of these tickets being sold, and the prizes are an iPod, a laptop computer, three hours of spa pampering, and diamond earrings.

The drawing for the winning tickets will be on Friday, September 28, at the library.

The Stars Are Coming

Fourteen artists have accepted the challenge of painting stars that measure about 26 inches at their widest point (each point is 13 inches to the center). Kathy Geckle’s husband Bob worked with carpenter and friend Greg McEvoy to re-create the star 11 times over after the Geckles found the form they liked and purchased one from a supplier in Texas. The men measured the original star, figured out the shapes and sizes of wood that would be needed to reproduce the star, and set to work. The 13th and 14th stars are made of tin, but also measure the same size.

The first three painted stars have already been returned to Mrs Geckle. Stephanie Adam, Bruce Degen, and David Merrill have already dropped theirs off, and each is as unique as the artist who decorated them.

Stephanie Adam has been painting and exhibiting her work for a few decades, but the library’s project is a far cry from her typical work. The Newtown artist (and art teacher at Middle Gate School) has become known for paintings that are always square. She likes bold colors and often includes tracings of antique tools and other representational and abstract images on her canvases.

Her Booth Library star, which she calls “Nightstar,” has a deep blue background, a strong red border, and 75 white stars of varying sizes.

Bruce Degen began by painting his star black to create a nighttime background, and then added the popular character from the Magic School Bus series that Mr Degen has been illustrating for more than 20 years. Ms Frizzle is floating around outer space, her trademark red hair peeking out from the hood of an astronaut suit; The Magic School Bus has been transformed for this adventure into a rocket ship filled with students; and even two of Ms Frizzle’s students, Keesha and Arnold, are suited up and hanging around outside the school bus with The Friz (the only thing missing seems to be Ms Frizzle’s longtime sidekick, a lizard named Liz).

While there are plenty of stars painted onto Mr Degen’s stars, along with a few clusters, there are also a handful of special stars on his work: Seven stars have been painted larger than the others, and these stars each include a diamond, tipping the hat to the name of the library’s big event. Mr Degen has named his star “Bustar.”

David and Beryl Merrill may have moved a few years ago, but the former Sandy Hook residents are still very much involved in Newtown and its ongoings. Mr Merrill was one of the artists featured just last year, in fact, when The Parent Connection held a similar event: A live auction of 24 bisque roosters that had been painted by local and regional artists.

This year Mr Merrill accepted the invitation to decorate a star for the library’s big event, and his is called “Flutter.” It has a light blue and yellow textured sponge background and features 17 butterflies of varying sizes, colors and types.

“It’s very unusual for David Merrill, but it’s also very beautiful,” said Mrs Geckle.

The other artists working on stars for “Diamonds in the Sky” are Paula Brinkman, Betty Christensen, Claudia Coopersmith, Steven Kellogg, Ross MacDonald, Daryl Maurath, Dick McEvoy, Ruth Newquist, Stacey Olszewski, Linda Pickwick, and Michelle Rosenthal.

All of the stars are due to Mrs Geckle before the end of August, and the public will have the opportunity to see all of the stars before they are auctioned off. An artists’ reception is planned at the library on the afternoon of Saturday, September 1.

The artists are expected to attend the reception, and silent bids will be accepted at that time for the auction. The order of the lots for the auction will also be determined that afternoon. Mrs Geckle says the artists will draw numbers to determine their stars’ lot number.