I was pleasantly surprised to find an article in the Hampshire Gazette yesterday about Laura and the library memorial for her. Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped make this happen.
Around Florence: Story hour honors local woman lost to breast cancer
by Laurie Loisel
Shortly after Children’s Librarian Kim Perez launched a story hour for parents and babies at the Lilly Library in 2003, she met Laura Kulp, a mom who joined with her daughter Lily. There were several other new mothers in that group, Perez remembers. “They all became really great friends,” she said.
The group was shaken to its core in 2007 when Laura Kulp was diagnosed with breast cancer, and died a year later.
“When she died, they put out a call to friends and relatives to donate to the library,” she said. One thing led to another and the story hour was renamed the Laura Kulp Memorial Lapsitting Story Time. It is offered Thursdays at 9:30 a.m., and is open to caregivers and their babies.
Donations from Kulp’s friends and family have generated about $1,000 for Lilly, money that is being used to replace “worn-out and well-loved books” and keep the lapsitting hour going for years to come, according to Lilly Director Mary Ann Tourjee. “It’s just a wonderful thing that these family and friends are doing in memory of Laura,” said Tourjee.
There are five other group story times at Lilly: preschoolers, ages 3 to 5, Tuesdays at 10 a.m.; toddlers, 19 months to 3 years, Thursdays at 10:30; the “I can read by myself” book club for newly emerging and independent readers, Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m.; and the Readers and Writers Club, which meets every other Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Perez said drop-ins are welcome, but it’s helpful, in planning for supplies and such, to give a heads up by calling 587-1500, ext. 102 .
4 responses so far ↓
1 Elena // Apr 1, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Thank you for sharing this with us. I know how much Laura loved the Lilly library and her friends there.
2 tom hollandsworth // Apr 1, 2009 at 11:19 pm
a perfect memorial for her–positive, fun and centered around babies and good books. she would be pretty darn happy about that.
3 Irene Bosch // Apr 2, 2009 at 11:57 am
Wow, what a great idea.
I will certainly send many nice books in honor of Laura. Many families will benefit to have new books at the Library. It would be great to show others how good intensions and relatively small amount of money could do so, so, much.
Thanks to the Kulp and Coleman family we learn ways to best use our love and memories to members of our family and friends who are no longer with us.
My words of support to the entire family and friends.
Irene.
4 Brian L. // Apr 6, 2009 at 7:54 am
If you would like to send a donation, the mailing address is
Mary Ann Tourjee
Lilly Library
19 Meadow Street, Florence, MA 01062
Ms. Tourjee is the director. If you are sending a check, make it out to “Lilly Library” and in the memo line of the check write “For Laura Kulp Memorial”. It would be helpful to include a note explaining the intent of the donation.
The library’s web site is http://lillylibrary.org.
There is a Web FAQ that talks about donations in general. I didn’t ask about book donations on the phone, but the FAQ states they are accepted. The FAQ also repeats the instructions for monetary donations.
-brian