Literary Society Events to
Celebrate
the 100th Anniversary of Anne of Green
Gables
Summer 2007 Carolyn Collins participated in Prince Edward Island's "Anne 2008"
events by speaking at some community libraries about life on PEI during the time of L.M. Montgomery's youth and the setting
of Anne of Green Gables. Her presentation was "Around the Waterloo Stove: the Heartbeat of Green Gables." She explained how
LMM used the kitchen for writing Anne of Green Gables as well as the room's function for food preparation, laundry
and all the activities that required the iron cook stove in "Anne's day."
January 5, 2008
The Literary Society met at the Avalon Tea Room where Pati Kachel did a lovely presentation on Christmas Memories -- lots
of nostalgia as well as humor -- and the tea served by the tearoom was very elegant and tasty. Christy presented a host
of ideas for the "Anne Day" and we brainstormed on additional ideas and details. Those present: Sarah and Patricia Reidel,
Beth Cavert, Penny Shreck, Christy Woster, Anne and Emily Woster, Pati Kachel, Ann Johnson, Carolyn Collins, Corrie Beck,
Peggy Yaeger, Joan O'Brien, and Betty Heath.
April 2008
Betty Heath and Ann Johnson designed beautiful Anne displays for their local libraries in Bayport, Woodbury, and Hastings,
Minnesota.
April 19th, 2008
The Literary Society hosted its first Anne event at the Rum River Library. The displays brought in by our members
were attractive, informative, interesting, and impressive. Christy and Emily Woster, and Penny Schreck organized the
day. Sarah and Pat Riedel brought a table full of antique household tools that intrigued children and adults; they also
brought beautiful display cases that held a large number of LMM first editions for the 150 visitors to view. Pati Kachel
did two story-telling events and also provided a large selection of vintage dresses, hats, aprons, gloves, etc., for visitors
to dress up in and have their pictures made. Thanks to Ann Johnson, Carolyn Collins, Christina Eriksson, and Beth Cavert
for helping out.
May 31, 2008 The Red Balloon Bookshop staff (Sally Rigler, Amy Baum, and Michelle Cromer-Poiré) hosted a happy
100th Birthday Party for Anne of Green Gables May 31, 2008 at their store on Grand Avenue in St. Paul.
Christy Woster and Penny Schreck brought lots of display materials, crafting supplies, and scrapbooks along with
door prizes to give out. Pati Kachel entertained the capacity crowd with stories about LMM and Anne (from Elizabeth McLeod's
new children's biography on LMM and Dierdre Kessler's new Anne of Green Gables for young readers).
Carolyn and Christina signed copies of the new Anne of Green Gables Treasury - Special Commemorative Edition.
Ann Johnson assisted with the display tables. To top off the party, a cake decorated with a picture of the original
Anne of Green Gables book cover was served.
July 24, 2008 The Red Balloon Bookshop and
the L. M. Montgomery Literary Society, hosted “A Tea Party to Celebrate 100 Years of Anne of Green Gables” at the historic University Club of Saint Paul. A hundred guests attended and
viewed the three rooms of 17 + tables of L.M. Montgomery Literary Society exhibits about the author of Anne of Green
Gables as well as displays of collectible Anne dolls, books about Montgomery, early edition books, several editions of
the new Anne prequel book, and many artifacts related to Anne, Prince Edward Island, and the author.
Our thanks to LMMLS members Sally Rigler
(representing Red Balloon) and Christy Woster for their superb organizing skills.
October 15, 2008
Christy Woster was the speaker at an Anne of Green Gables
tea held on at the Brooklyn Park, Minnesota Community Center. Sixty people attended. Christy and Penny Schreck set up a display
of dolls, old books and information on L. M. Montgomery, and Christy did a presentation about the author. A lunch was served
and participants brought their own teacups, which made the beautifully set tables even more festive. A special thank you to
Pat Busch, Adult and Senior Center Activity Director at the Community Center, for doing an outstanding job setting up the
tables, planning lunch and coordinating the event. Ms. Busch has asked Christy to plan another event with the help of our
Literary Society for spring of 2009, and a Mother/Daughter “Anne” tea is in the planning stages.
November
7, 2008 Professional
storyteller Pati Kachel had the pleasure of introducing 200 elementary students at Nevada Community School near Ames, Iowa,
to Lucy Maud Montgomery and Anne Shirley. Nevada’s multi-age classroom teachers are strong advocates for inspiring the
love of reading and writing in their students. Their curriculum theme this year is, “Water, Water, Everywhere”.
Aware that Maud loved nature and that she used the imagery of water throughout the Anne book series, Pati crafted an
interactive story program for her young listeners.
Four separate groups of approximately 50
students came to spend an hour with Pati. She dressed up in her Victorian style costume, complete with three layers of petticoats,
pantaloons and laced up boots. The classroom where she gathered the students featured six educational stations of colorful
display boards created by our Minnesota society members. One station featured Emily Woster’s Avonlea School Room display
where children could see and learn about the kind of textbooks, chalkboard slates and toys that children would have used during
the turn of the 20th century. One of Sarah Riedel’s displays provided a good geography lesson with her map of PEI. The
kids enjoyed putting together a large jigsaw floor puzzle of Canada provided by Christy Wooster. The children colored and
made their own flags of Canada to take home. Sarah Riedel’s display board featuring her beautifully taken photographs
of PEI helped the kids to see the wonderful sights of many kinds of water that Maud wrote about. Pati read excerpts from Anne
of Green Gables describing all of the various bodies of water -- the sea, the brooks, the rivers and the lakes on PEI.
Sarah Riedel also created a photo display of the Green Gables House through the years.
In another area Pati displayed her personal scrapbook from her vacation to PEI in 1993, along with dozens of her books
about Montgomery, the island and her treasured collection of Anne Shirley dolls. Pati also brought along her extensive wardrobe
of antique clothing and accessories and invited the kids to walk through her “Victorian Times” corner, where her
students had to use their “museum eyes”. There they could see the vintage fashions described by another one of
Christy Woster’s displays constructed with pages from women’s magazines and catalogs from that period in history.
During their time together, Pati read aloud from Elizabeth McLeod’s book about Lucy Maud Montgomery written especially
for young readers and then had a question and answer time afterwards. She gave
away handouts of her “Ann-with-an-e-isms” - listing all of the funny things Anne Shirley said. She also gave away many copies of the PEI vacation planner catalogs and bookmarks.
But by far, the place that the students enjoyed the most was at the end of each hour when both girls and boys could
put on straw hats with red braids and boyish caps, had freckles painted on their faces, and then had their photos taken with
their classmates. The delightful students and the dedicated teachers of the multi-age learning program of Nevada Elementary
and our traveling storyteller had a wonderful day together. Pati is confident that 200 new Iowan Anne fans were added to our
kindred spirits club that day!
November 8 Literary Society
members met at the Serendipity Cafe in Andover to talk about the LMM conference at Guelph and other news.
November 29th Christy, Emily, and Anne Woster and Penny
Schreck hosted a scrapbooking party to raise funds for the Leaskdale
Manse and Church.
