The Coronavirus is reshaping the daily routines of millions of Americans. For some people volunteering is a way of life. This week is National Volunteer Week and we at Chester County Library and Henrietta Hankin Branch want to take a moment to say thank you to our dedicated volunteers. We see daily that this is your way of life. Your help allows us to reach out to the community with not only books but with programs and resources that can impact crucial services in the community. Your efforts in our corner of the world emulate the efforts of people all over Chester County pitching in during this crisis by volunteering and helping neighbors, making masks and delivering groceries to shut-ins. The Chester County community is protecting each other by social distancing, wearing masks and staying home. We are all in this together. Wouldn’t it be nice if the kindness out lives the Coronavirus?
Category: Adult Resources
Telephone Community Briefing: Mental Health & Wellness, and Support for Basic Needs during COVID-19
The Chester County Commissioners and leaders from the Chester County Department of Human Services are hosting a telephone community briefing on Monday, April 20, 2020 at 2:30 p.m.
The briefing will offer guidance for individuals who are experiencing mental health and wellness challenges; for those who are concerned about loved ones of all ages who are experiencing emotional challenges; and for those who are seeking support to meet basic needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coping with Job Loss Virtual Support Group by Family Service of Chester County
Are you looking for support at this time of job loss?
Do you feel angry? Do you feel confused?
Are you asking ‘why me?’
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Groups meet virtually on ‘ZOOM’ on the following Mondays between 12:00 pm- 1:00 pm:
April 27th
May 11th
At-Home Yoga
Feeling stressed out? Stuck in a rut? Looking for ways to keep active and get your body moving in the comfort of your home? With a range of videos from guided meditations to advanced yoga sequences, Yoga with Adriene offers something for everyone, regardless of their level of experience! Now is a great time to begin your yoga practice or strengthen the foundation you may have already developed with Adriene’s easy-to-follow video collection. Make time for yourself to practice mindfulness, mental balance, and to get in touch with your body. Check one of these recommended videos to get connected with your mind and body:
Meditation for Mental Balance and Grounding
Also Yoga eBooks on OverDrive.
National Orchid Day – celebrate with these newspaper articles, magazines and eBooks!
Today is National Orchid Day. In celebration of the day, take a look at these articles and eBooks about orchids, available now in the New York Times and on Flipster & OverDrive.
Sign in to Flipster here to read these magazine articles about orchids:
Organic Gardener – April 2020: “From Donkeys to Flying Ducks” by Helen McKerral – exploring the world of native orchids and how to grow them. There are many articles and references to orchids in back issues of Organic Gardener too. Use Flipster’s Search bar on the upper right of your screen.
Horticulture – May 2020: Visit the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden and the Orchid Conservatory and use the Search bar to visit articles about orchids in back issues.
New York Times – April 18, 2019: “Orchids Bloom in Thousands of Forms. But Why?” by C. Claiborne Ray
To read this article and today’s New York Times, visit our Databases here. Choose New York Times and select Remote Access. Enter your library card number and PIN to create a free account. Type “orchids” in the Search bar on the upper left of your screen.
Maybe you’d like to read a book about orchids. These eBooks are currently available on OverDrive for download to your device.
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an e.ndangered flower—the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii—a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles who help him and the forces of justice who fight him.
A blistering romantic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pursuit. Far from her sensible life as an English teacher in Kansas, Lora looks forward to a relaxing vacation in Cancun. But fate thwarts her careful plans when a darkly handsome American named Max jumps into her car with a loaded gun.
And on the web, visit the official NationalOrchidDay.com site.
We offer a great variety of magazines, newspapers, eBooks and eAudiobooks, available for easy access with your library card. Read magazines on Flipster, access the Philadephia Inquirer and the New York Times through our Databases and download eBooks and eAudiobooks on OverDrive.
Play Jackbox Games With Us
Join us to play Jackbox Games online this Saturday, April 18th. Registration required. Please provide your valid and accurate email address. We will email you the Zoom link and instructions at least two hours before the games start.
Games Schedule:
Drawful – You think you can draw? Try this game. – 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Fibbage XL – Ready for the hilarious bluffing game? – 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
You Don’t Know Jack 2015 – You are in for some comedy trivia. – 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Word Spud – Time to test your vocabulary. – 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Lie Swatter – True OR False? – 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
We hope to see you there!
Virtual volunteer opportunities: Help the Library of Congress and others make historical documents more accessible
You can transcribe or otherwise work with historical documents to help make them more searchable and accessible to researchers and others!
Interested in volunteering your time? Below are a few crowdsourcing projects to explore. Each project site has its own instructions for getting started, as well as project-specific guidelines/support/help to aid you in your work:
- By the People from the Library of Congress: Campaigns include “Letters to Lincoln,” “Suffrage: Women Fight for the Vote,” “Clara Barton: ‘Angel of the Battlefield,'” and many others. Visit the By the People Help Center to learn how to get started.
- Citizen Archivist from the National Archives: Missions include “Franklin D. Roosevelt Master Speech Files,” “American’s Scenic Byways” [photographs], “Amistad,” and more. Select “Register and Get Started” to begin.
- Freedom on the Move from Cornell University and others: “Rediscovering The Stories Of Self-Liberating People: A database of fugitives from American Slavery.” Help transcribe “runaway ads” and related ads posted in newspapers. From the Freedom on the Move homepage, click on “Crowdsource and Search Ads” to get started.
- Smithsonian Digital Volunteers from the Smithsonian Institution: A new featured project is “Letters from Paris: American Artists in Paris, 1860-1930.” For more projects, hover over “Projects” at the top right of the Smithsonian Digital Volunteers: Transcription Center to browse by theme or museum/archive. Scroll down to the “Join Us!” section to get started.
Single Mothers Online Conference
The 8th Annual Single Mothers’ Conference is a 2 day free event brought to you by the Chester County Community Collaborative and will be held online this year on Saturday, April 18 and Saturday, April 25. The schedule for Day 1 is above.
The conference gathers resources from vendors in the area, dedicated to various aspects of the lives of single mothers including health, family, childcare, legal aid, finance, resume building, work wardrobe, nutrition, and so much more. There will be a virtual exhibit hall in addition to the online workshops.
To join in, visit the Single Mothers Conference Facebook page for a live stream throughout the day or email singlemotherscc@gmail.com for more information.
Staff Picks Quick and Easy Recipes
Looking for something to quickly pull together for dinner with what you have in your pantry or fridge? Here are some quick and easy ideas where there’s some flexibility with items that can be substituted.
Also check out these eBooks:
Free Personal Finance Workshops
In partnership with the United Way Financial Stability Center, Open Hearth, Inc. is making a number of FREE Personal Financial Workshop Offerings available to consumers through ZOOM during the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Home Buying Basics
- Good Credit – How to Get It!
- Finances for a Lifetime
- Car Buying: Put Yourself in the Driver’s Seat
- Financing Your First Home
- Save Like a Millionaire!
- Paying for College/Vocational Training
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