Loose Strife

I have received a few requests for suggestion regarding donations that might be made in Laura’s memory. It took a while to come up with some recommendations, but here are two:
First, the extent to which our friends in Western Massachusetts have offered their support was very comforting, uplifting, and even surprising to Laura — although it shouldn’t have been. We love our little town, too, and all our helpful new neighbors and friends, here. The preschool is one of the many businesses and organizations that helps create a sense of small town neighborliness here. It is also a place where Lily and Naomi met most of their new friends during the last two years and where I also made new friends with parents and teachers and connected with the community.
Lily had been in a very expensive preschool in Northampton before with outstanding facilities run with precision and report cards. Kids attended art and music classes with special teachers. But Lily seemed a little anxious about preschool and I got a sense that she just wanted to play. The Ashfield preschool is a different affair. It’s run on a shoestring budget in a very easy-going style with delightful, but modest, facilities. There’s less concern about thematic elements tying together the day’s activities and more interest in simply fostering a nurturing social environment where kids can play and learn to behave well with each other. And on most days the kids help to bake their afternoon snack. It’s a good fit for us.
For those reasons, I know Laura would have been delighted to be remembered by a contribution to the preschool. Contributions to the 2008 annual fund can made to

Ashfield Community Preschool
103 Baptist Corner Rd
PO Box 19
Ashfield, MA 01330

The second recommendation comes from our friend Julia Flannery, who has been tremendously helpful over the last year. She has arranged for a story time at the Lilly Library to be named in Laura’s honor and a plaque to be placed in the library. Julia explains that Laura met Julia and several other mothers when she took Lily to “lap time”, a story time at the library for children under 18 months. These women formed a mom’s group that regularly met for playdates and later organized a monthly night out. The group has now grown to about 30 and include many of our close friends.
In addition to the personal connection to that reading group, Laura was always fond of libraries. She worked and volunteered in libraries since college, was an active patron (to say the least), checked out hundreds of children’s books that she read to our daughters, and loved the public libraries for their egalitarian ideal and contribution to local community. (I remember well when we visited the Seattle Public Library and the Library of Congress. In both places she couldn’t stop taking pictures.)
Contributions can be made to

The Lilly Library
Mary Ann Tourjee, Director
19 Meadow Street
Florence, MA 01062

and indicate that the donation is for “Lap Sitting: the Laura Kulp Memorial Storytime”.