2024 Annual Writing Contest Winners Announced

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Annual Writing Contest! After much deliberation and some extremely difficult choices, the judges selected the following pieces:
 

6-9 Grade Fiction

First Place: Patient No. 3160-File by Josephine Dunn

Second Place: The Doll by Georgia Leeman

6-9 Grade Non-Fiction

First Place: At Sprague Pond by Zella Morgan

No Second Place

10-12 Grade Fiction

First Place: Give Up the Ghost by Callum McInnis

Second Place: Blinded by Aurora Guzzetti

Adult Fiction

First Place: Highway Bound by Joan Newkirk

Second Place: At the Station by James O. Melita

Adult Non-Fiction

First Place TIE: Eliza’s Rocker by Rosalind Benton

First Place TIE: Baseball Cards by Paul Kalkstein

Second Place: Dining with the Montagnards by Douglas Robb

 
All participants will be celebrated at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, February 11 at 5:30pm, and all winners will see their pieces featured in our literary magazine, which will be published in February.
 
Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to everyone who entered!

AARP Tax Aide

Get help with your taxes from Tax-Aide volunteers. No appointments are required or will be made. Before your visit please fill out the Intake Questionnaire Packet available at the front desk. Questions?  Leave a voicemail at 207-725-8670 and someone will return your call as soon as possible.

Tax help is available Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am-5pm from February 4 – April 22.  No clients will be added to the waiting list after 3pm.

AARP will not be processing tax returns on Tuesday, February 11 or Tuesday, March 11.

Town History Series 2025

The Sagadahoc History and Genealogy Room announces the twenty first annual Town History Series!

The Town History Series is a long-standing Patten Free Library tradition that brings together Patten Free Library’s member communities to learn about and celebrate each town’s local history. 

The town of Arrowsic and the historical societies of Bath, Georgetown, West Bath, and Woolwich each select a speaker to present on an aspect of their local history.  All programs take place at 10:30 a.m. and will be presented in person and streamed live on YouTube

New this year, registration is required to attend in personYou must register for each individual program, and walk-ins will only be accepted if there is space in the room at the time of the program’s start.  Register at the link  to the individual programs below or call The History Room at 207-443-5141 x1018.

Click on the individual listing below to learn more and register online. Recordings will become available below and on the Town History Series playlist the week after they are live.

 

Saturday, January 18: Bath
Roy Lawrence’s Bath: Past & Present
 
Saturday, January 25: Arrowsic
One House’s Journey Through Arrowsic History Revisited
 
Saturday, February 1: Georgetown
Josephine Newman: The Woman and her Sanctuary
 
Saturday, February 8: West Bath
Stink or Swim: The New Meadows Lake
 
Saturday, February 15: Woolwich
Route 1 v2.0

 

Stream on YouTube

 

Death Café

Death happens. Let’s talk about it! Death Café is a space for coming together with your fellow mortals to discuss our shared fate and to enjoy some delicious cake while we’re at it. This group will facilitate open, informal conversations about death and dying; it is not intended to provide grief counseling or end-of-life planning education. If you are a person who is eventually going to die, please join us to ponder the end that awaits us all.  Death Café meets the fourth Saturday of each month.

A Death Café is a free, volunteer-led gathering organized to counter the fear and discomfort surrounding the subject of death. The first Death Café was held in 2011 in the East London basement of Jon Underwood, who was inspired by the death-positive work of Swiss sociologist Bernard Cretz. Since then, thousands of Death Cafés have been hosted in over 90 countries around the world. You can read more about the Death Café movement at https://deathcafe.com.

Death Café is led by PFL Reference Librarian Aurora.  When not working behind the desk, Aurora volunteers with a local hospice organization and writes about mortality, among other things. She plans to begin training as a death doula in the spring of 2025. Aurora’s wardrobe has been described as “funereal.”

Let’s Learn About: Cellos (part 2!)

Saturday, February 15

10:30am

Kids and Families

Ellen and Lisa are back for their 2nd installment of Let’s Learn About after an extremely well-attended and engaging first session. These two cellists will be continuing their hands-on education about what it takes to play the cello and all the fun things a cello can do. All ages are welcome and no registration is required. 

New Merch Alert!

New Merch alert! Design Contest Winner Tiffany McFarlin’s designs are now available to purchase via our online store. We will have limited availability at the library soon, but if you just can’t wait you can shop online today and find the perfect gift for the library lover in your life. We will have a limited run of stickers available for sale at Starry Night and A Night at the Patten.

 

Design Contest Winners

Congratulations to the winners of our Design Contest!  The winning design by Tiffany McFarlin will be featured on new merchandise, which will be available for purchase next month.  The designs by the runners up will be saved to be used in future projects.  You can see all the terrific entries we received on display at the library through December.

Winner: Tiffany McFarlin

Runner Up: Gus Ahalt and Rory Levesque

 

Runner Up: Elida Dunn-Francis

Runner Up: Chalk Smith

 

Bath Climate Conversations

Bath Climate Conversations is a continuing series focused on learning, discussing, and connecting around ways to sustain and support our vibrant town as climate change occurs. Hosted by Bath Climate Action Commission in partnership with KELT and the Patten Free Library and presented in person and/or virtually.

More Information

Build Our Future

We are so excited to announce the launch of Build Our Future, our new strategic initiative to improve sustainability and reduce energy consumption in our beautiful historic building.

We partnered with Energy Management Consultants to conduct a thorough analysis of our facilities and develop a comprehensive energy reduction and infrastructure improvement project. This project showcases significant energy savings and rebates by incorporating modern energy-efficient equipment and design principles. This initiative reflects our steadfast commitment to both environmental and financial stewardship.

On Sunday, September 8, phase 1 of our project officially begins with the removal of gravel from our roof. This process will take two days, and due to the expected noise from the vacuum truck, the Library will be closed on Monday, September 9.  We also anticipate some noise in the immediate areas surrounding the Library building during the gravel removal.

The project will include exciting upgrades for the building, such as LED lighting, a roof mounted solar array, and an updated HVAC system.

To learn more about this exciting project please click here. We can’t wait to show you all that we have in store!

Teen Movies

Every Thursday at 3pm in the Teen Space

Open to teens in grades 6-12.  Snacks provided!

 

October 3: Haunted Mansion

October 10: Twilight

October 17: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

October 24: Hotel Transylvania

October 31: Hocus Pocus

News & Updates

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    AARP Tax Aide

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