by Kate Evans
The Paw Paw Public Library has begun showing movies every other Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. as part of their wintertime family offerings. A total of five movies are currently scheduled.
The first movie “I Can Only Imagine”-the inspiring true story behind Mercy Me’s chart-topping song about true forgiveness-will be featured this Friday, January 27. It stars Cloris Leachman, Dennis Quaid, J. R. Cacia and Cole Marcus.
The next movie “Call of the Wild” is set for February 3 at 6:30 p.m. Harrison Ford stars in this exciting adventure thriller based on the classic novel by Jack London.
TV grant
Paw Paw Public Library Director Ginny DiFrancesco said that they received a $2,300 grant last summer from the Tom and Virginia Seely Foundation for a 60-inch TV for their “Oceans of Possibilities” Summer Program. They couldn’t go in person to visit the Natural Aquarium in Baltimore so they asked for a TV to take kids to virtually visit several regional aquariums.
Photo by Ginny DiFrancesco
They were able to visit the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Appalachian Laboratory in Frostburg, Maryland in person.
Library staff have used the TV to show movies for their storytime and kids’ programs, DiFrancesco said. Now they’ve decided to also use the TV for kids, families and teen movies.
Three more movies
Three additional movies have also been scheduled. “Teen-Eighth Grade” will be shown on February 17. A young girl makes her way through the last week of a disastrous year of eighth grade before starting high school.
The next film is “Dreamer” on March 3. The movie was inspired by a true story of a horse-loving family that nurses an injured horse back to health and gets him back on the track. It stars Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning and Kris Kristofferson.
The fifth movie “Brave” is scheduled for March 17. It’s an animated Pixar Studios film that takes the whole family on an incredible adventure to an ancient land of mystery.
DiFrancesco said that they have been moving the TV around trying to figure out the best seating arrangements. They can seat possibly 25 to 30 people for the movies.
DiFrancesco said they will show these five movies and see what happens and what kind of a response they get. There are a lot more films that she’s considering that would be fitting.
As long as there’s interest, the library will keep adding movies every two weeks, she said. They are also open to suggestions. Call 304-947-7013 to tell them your movie ideas.
Reading push
DiFrancesco is also encouraging a big reading push at the Paw Paw Public Library. She said that West Virginia ranks 45th in the Nation’s Report Card’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading results and that she wants to help improve reading scores.
DiFrancesco hopes to encourage seniors from the Paw Paw Senior Center to get library cards and large print books and to read to themselves and to children. Their children’s librarian Janice Ross is doing a wonderful job with storytime on Friday mornings and had a library program planned for second and third graders this week.
DiFrancesco is also promoting kids signing up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Dolly’s program sends one book a month to children until they’re five years old.
