Join the Chelsea District Library as they celebrate their seventh annual community read event. Each year library staff, local teachers, business owners and other community members come together to read and discuss one book to build a sense of community while promoting literacy.
Last year, the Chelsea District Library took the community read-formerly known as Chelsea Reads Together- beyond library walls by teaming up with the Chelsea Wellness Foundation as part of their Five Healthy Towns Project. This year the partnership between Chelsea District Library and Chelsea Wellness Foundation not only continues, but expands to include the towns of Stockbridge, Dexter, Manchester and Grass Lake and will now be called the 5 Healthy Towns Community Read. The library plans to highlight one of the Five Healthy Towns Project's core elements--Eat Better, Move More, Connect with Others in Healthy Ways, and Avoid Unhealthy Substances--each year for five years.
In the spirit of collaboration, a committee from each of the five towns will be promoting this year's book - In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan -- contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine as well as a contributing editor at Harper's magazine. In Defense of Food is a celebration of food--real, proper, simple food --not the kind that comes in a packet, or has lists of unpronounceable ingredients, or that makes nutritional claims about how healthy it is. The book is a simple invitation to rediscover the joys of eating well. By following a few pieces of advice--Eat food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.--you will enrich your life and your palate, and enlarge your sense of what it means to be healthy and happy.
Over 1500 copies of In Defense of Food will be circulated among the five communities with the tag line Read it, Sign it, Share it to encourage everyone to read the book, sign the bookplate and pass it on to a neighbor or leave it in a public location. Five hundred copies will be distributed in the Chelsea area. These pass-it-on books can be found at the Chelsea District Library as well as local restaurants, doctor's offices, beauty salons, banks and fitness centers.
The 5H Community Read Kick-Off is Saturday, September 15 from 12-2pm at the Chelsea District Library, 221 South Main Street. This kick-off event is sponsored by all five communities and will feature bands, games, tastings, cooking demonstrations, kid's activities and more. Free pass-it-on copies of In Defense of Food will also be given out.
In Chelsea, the library is teaming up with several local organizations to provide themed programs including cooking demonstrations with Chelsea Community Kitchen, tours of the Community Farm of Ann Arbor , Capella Farm, and a kids tour of Tantre Farms, movie screenings at the local Family Circle Farm, and a Real Food Workshop at local restaurant Back to the Roots.
Programs developed around the 5 Healthy Towns Project theme, Eat Better and Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food will be hosted by each of the five communities throughout the fall.
Visit the 5 Healthy Towns Community Read website at www.5hcommunityread.wordpress.com to find programs near you.
Whatever you geek, fun or serious, the public library supports you.
Get your geek on. Show your support.
| geekthelibrary.org
