Jonathan Kruk, Revolutionary Storyteller is coming to the Turin Library on Friday, August 21st at 6:30!
Turning Point to Turin – Tales of Revolutionary Upstate!
Come all Ye Patriots, listen. and hear ….!
~ The Origin of Yankee Doodle in Upstate New York
~ Learn about the battle here, fought from Stanwix to Saratoga
~ Get the Tragic story of Jane McCrea
~ What revolutionary events happened near Turin!
~ How George Washington saved the new nation by making a spectacle of himself! Jonathan Kruk, is the Hudson Valley’s Master Storyteller. Known for solo shows of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “A Christmas Carol” he’s performing stories of the Revolution in New York, this 250th anniversary year. He’s been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, The TODAY Show and the Travel Channel. He is the author of three books and eight recordings. The Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution presented Mr. Kruk with citizenship medals for his storytelling on the American Revolution.
Join us on Friday, August 7th from 5-8:00 at the Turin Park for the library’s 80th Birthday Bash! Sassy Mamma’s Food Truck, live music, bounce house, kids games, free ice cream with the Lewis County Dairy Princess program, new storywalk, and proclamations! Bring a lawn chair to enjoy the fun!
REPCO Wildlife Encounters is coming to Turin! Join us on Wednesday, July 22nd at 4:00 at the Turin library for an interactive educational outreach show with real reptiles, amphibians and fossils! We will “Unearth Quite a Story” with great photo opportunities!
Turin Library Summer Events
Our summer starts off with the Annual July 4th Parade at 11:00 in the Village of Turin. The Summer Reading Program “Unearth a Story” will begin on Wednesday, July 8th at 4:00-5:00. The Catskill Puppet Theater returns with their HUGE puppets on Friday, the 10th at 6:30 to perform “Hiawatha”. Due to construction at the firehall, the show will be held at the CCC across from soouth lewis School. As usual, we will have our free ice cream social afterwards while everyone gets to try out the beautiful puppets. Kids can “Paint a Dinosaur with Bree” on Monday, the 13th from 5-6:00. Registration is necessary for this event so she will have the proper materials with her. In recognition of the 250th, on Wednesday, July 15th 4-5:00, we will be “Unearthing Local History” with Constable Hall’s Traveling Kids Colonial Crafts Program. Participants will try turkey quill writing, flint and steel, Betsy Ross 5-Pointed Stars, Ben Franklin Printmaking, and Peach Stones, etc. On the 22nd at 4:00, the Repco Wildlife Program will be at the library with their live Reptile Program. July 29th Turin Library Summer Readers (only) will do a side trip to “The Carousel”. Our final Summer Reading Party in the Park will be August 5th at 4:00 at the Turin Park. (Watch for more fun details on the “challenge”!) The library will be celebrating our 80th Birthday on Friday, August 7th at the Turin Park! We will have a new historical storywalk set up, a bounce house, live music, food, free ice cream with the Lewis County Dairy Princess, fun and games, and an official Proclamation! All are encouraged to join us for a wonderful birthday party! Our last summer event is with the wonderful Jonathan Kruk, Master Storyteller. Join us at the library on Friday, August 21st, at 6:30 with wonderful tales of the fight for independence and the Revolutionary War!
Living Green and Off the Grid! Join us on Friday, April 17th at 6:30 for a wonderful free presentation on living off the grid and learn some tips on living more “green”!
Pam and Ed Falk of Greig, have been living sustainably with solar, wind and water power for over 50 years! They will share their experience and knowledge of renewable systems that work well and how to acquire or build them.
Join us for a Woodburning Workshop at the library on Friday, February 13th at 6:00 to get your creative juices flowing! We may have some woodburning kits available to borrow, so contact us and ask. We will have the pieces of wood, some patterns and fun ideas, or people are also encouraged to bring their own burners and wooden spoons, boxes or other wooden items they would like to burn. Pre-registration would be helpful, but not necessary.
Tis the Season! Join us for some or all of our great holiday events. Sunday, November 23rd at 1:00 we have a very special Thanksgiving Storyhour. Then on Friday, December 5th at 6:00 we will be decorating our library Christmas tree. Afterwards we will go outside at 7:00 to light up the giant corner tree and sing some carols. Join us for a great time of tree lightings, inside and out, both big and small. Lastly, our annual Christmas Party will be on Sunday, Decmeber 14th at 6:00. Young and old are invited to enjoy the D’Ambrosi Polar Express and Village and visit with Santa. (Don’t forget children need to be registered if they would like a Christmas present from library!)
Now we are starting to organize our fall activities and watch for more details on our Great Library Give Back on Thursday, October 23rd from 6:00-9:00. It’s an Old Time Friends Evening with cider, donuts, old historical DVDs playing, scrapbooks, and Old Time Friends photo props!
It was a great summer with lots of fun activites to help “Color our World”! Click here for our video review of summer events. Summer Fun 2025
FOOD, FUN & MUSIC at the Turin Park
Join us at the Turin Park on Friday, August 8th at 5:00 for a great summer evening! We are starting off with a wonderful, special, new Storywalk Reveal at 5:00. (Watch for some special guests!) Sassy Mamma’s Food Truck starts serving at 5:00, Where’s Bella starts singing at 6:00, and we’ll have a bounce house, games, corn hole, ice cream served by the Lewis County Dairy Princess and her Court, and much more. Bring a lawn chair and enjoy a great community time!
Summer fun starts with our Annual July 4th Parade at 11:00 on July 4th. Then young and old are invited to join us for our Summer Reading Program on five consecutive Wednesday afternoons from 4:00-5:00 for wonderful “Color Our World” activities. We start off with the award winning storytellers, The Storycrafters on July 9th. On Friday, July 11th at 6:00, the Catskill Puppet Theater returns with their GIANT puppets to perform “Hiawatha” and enjoy free ice cream sundaes afterwards. Kids can “Paint with Bree” on July 16th (please sign up for this free class). Kris Watson will be doing a Beginner Weaving Class on July 23rd, and on July 30th we will return to Pam and Ed Falk’s for a wonderful scavenger hunt/hike for “Nature’s Colors” and of course…….. end up at the carousel!!! Our Summer Reading Party in the Park will be on August 6th, and we are excited for our FOOD! FUN! and MUSIC! at the park on August 8th. Music with Where’s Bella, Sassy Mamma’s Food Truck, new storywalk unveiling, and tons of games and fun for people of all ages!
One of our favorite music duos is returning to Turin!! YAY!!! Join us on May 16th at 6:30 for the delightful award winning Folk-Pop music of Hungrytown! Depending on the weather, it may be held at the park or in the library. So bring a lawnchair in case it is at the park!
Join us on May 3rd for our 32nd Annual Garage Sale Day throughout the Turin area! Maps, coffee and a book sale will be available at the library, many sales and free things throughout the area and the Turin Firemen will be having their wonderful chicken barbecue! Contact the library by April 30th if you would like to have a sale and be put on the map.
Join us on Sunday, April 6th at 2:00 for a wonderful “writers and illustrators workshop”. With the help of published children’s author, Trish Michael, each participant will create their very own short story and illustrate it. Each story will be shared on a stand at the Turin Park! The official unveiling will be at our Earth Day Celebration at the Turin Park Kite Day! (We have ten stands so reserve a space soon.)
Our 10th Annual South Lewis Student Art Show is all set up. Stop in and vote for your favorite Patron’s Choice Award all during the month of February. Judging will take place and prizes will be awarded on Thursday, February 27th from 6-8:00. We will also enjoy the live music of Ready Play Studios from 7-8:00. Stop in quickly or for the entire evening.
We are excited to announce all the fun things happening in Turin for the Christmas season!! Young and old are invited to help us decorate the library tree on Friday, December 6th at 6:00. We’ll have crafts and snacks, etc, but THEN….. at 7:00 we will head out to watch The Turin Highland Lodge turn the lights on the huge tree at the corner! On Sunday, December 15th at 6:00, we’ll have our Community Christmas Party with Santa. Contact the library with children’s names and ages if you want a gift from the library. The D’Ambrosi family will also be setting up their wonderful Polar Express Train and huge village. We also have our Friends Group Christmas Basket Raffle going. Tickets are $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00. The Village Christmas Decorating Contest returns and there will be judging in three different categories. (Watch for more details on this.) Whew, what fun!!!!!
Help us celebrate National “Great Library Give Back Day”! We’ll have cider, donuts, cookies, and a wonderful slide show going of “Historic Turin”. Stop in quick, or stay for the whole thing. We would love to see you, and “give back” to our supportive community!
The Turin Park has a wonderful new permanent storywalk thanks to the Eileen Conway family. Donations in her memory have made this possible, and her family did ALL the work installing it! Check back at the park to enjoy a fun story. It can easily be interchanged, so we are encouraging people to think of their own stories to share. Kids can write and illustrate a ten page story, or we can also do history or family memories. Lots of great ideas to come!
We are very excited to invite everyone to a Meet and Greet with author Jennifer Donnelly. On Friday, August 9th sat 6:00, Jennifer will return to her roots and share with us her journey of becoming a bestselling author. Check out her website for more information at www.jenniferdonnelly.com.
She will be speaking about her award-winning novel A Northern Light. The talk is titled “The Presence of the Past: Writing A Northern Light”. In 2015, this wonderful book was named TIME Magazine’s one of the best 100 young adult books of all time! It is also the winner of the Carnegie Medal, the L.A. Times Book Prize, the Borders Original Voices Prize and a Michael L. Printz Honor. A Northern Light is a coming of age story set against the backdrop of a true murder which took place in the Adirondacks in the summer of 1906.
Her program delves into the inspiration behind the novel, how she researched and wrote the book, and how her childhood in Port Leyden shaped her as a writer. There will be a Q & A after the talk, and she’s always happy to answer questions about her many other books, her writing process, and to talk about agents, editors, and my experiences in both traditional and independent publishing.
Check our Turin Library Facebook page for more details on our upcoming events. Happy summer!
“The Erie Canal and the Underground Railroad” Presentation on Friday, June 7th at 6:00
Derrick Pratt from the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse returns with another great presentation, the “Pathway of Resistance: The Erie Canal and the Underground Railroad” This constantly evolving talk examines the experience of African-Americans along the Erie Canal Corridor, with a particular focus on the struggle for abolition. While parts of this story are unpleasant, slavery, racism, and resistance are critical to understanding our society today.
4th Annual Kite Day at the Park
We will be celebrating Earth Day with our 4th Annual Kite Day at the Turin Park. Young an old are invited to join us on Monday, April 22nd at 5:00 for some high flying fun! The park is always windy, so we usually have great luck getting the kites up. Since it is also Earth Day, people are encouraged to bring some plastic gloves and bags to help clean up the litter there as well.
Erie Canal Event : Presentation and Canal Mules Display
Join us Friday, April 5th at 6:00 for this wonderful program on the “Basics of the Erie Canal”. Derrick Pratt, (Director of Education for the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse) will give a presentation on why and how the canal was built. What happened once it was built and where is it now? He will also have installed an exhibit at the library on “Mules Throughout History and on the Erie Canal”. This exhibit will be up until May, so stop in during library hours to enjoy it before it goes back to Syracuse!
On Friday, March 15th at 6:30, in the South Lewis School multi-purpose room, Erin Coon from Vernon, taught us many different line dances. It was great fun for young and old, beginners or pros, singles or couples!
Thirsty Painters Paint Party! Bree did it again… She somehow managed to get us to paint some beautiful paintings of birch trees and chickadees! Thanks!
Lowville author teaches kids about self care at local library, while giving to children in need TURIN, NY:
We had a great time with Trish Michael, Lowville author of 3 uplifting children’s picture books. For every book sold, she donates one to a needy child and she sold enough books to give away 26!!!!
We had a lot of fun this holiday season! We decked our halls, and raffled off a beautiful Christmas basket just bursting with Christmas items, (Kelly Amidon won). Thanks to all that donated for it and bought tickets. Mary Ann Lepkowski filled our display case with nativity items from all over the world, the D’Ambrosi Christmas Village and Polar Express was enjoyed by everyone, and the village had their Christmas Lighting contest. The Matthews family received first place for decorating the giant tree at the corner, (first time in 15 years!) and Tourvilles came in second and Buckinghams third. The firemen drove Santa around through the village and delivered him at the library for us. We had over 60 people attend our Christmas Party! Click on the link below for a quick video of our fun with Santa. We already have some great events planned for January, so keep a lookout for our Storytime with Trish, Sip and Paint, and….. Swing Dancing, etc. Happy New Year! Christmas Fun with Santa!
The Thirsty Painters did it again…. What a wonderful time we had with Breanne Ringwald!
What a great summer we had here at the library!! Check out this short video! Summer 2023
Outdoor Movie Night on the Lawn! Thursday, August 31 at 8:00 (Weather permitting….) Bring a lawn chair and a blanket to enjoy a fun, family movie. Cats & Dogs will be the movie. It’s a great kids movie about dogs and cats that are spies and at war with each other. One of the dogs in the film was actually from Turin. Come and hear the quick story of how he made it into the movies, and then enjoy popcorn and a movie!
Thirsty Painters Paint Party! September 8th at 6:00 Contact the library to sign up. Just a $10.00 donation to the Friends Group!
Storywalk at Whetstone Gulf Exercise Trail All summer long!
We really enjoyed our annual visit with the Catskill Puppet Theater! Here is a quick video….
Annual Garage Sale Day Returns on Saturday, May 6th! Clean your houses, contact the library to be put on the map, come to our book sale, and enjoy the firemen’s Chicken BBQ!
Kite Day at the Turin Park!
Young and old are invited to join us at the Turin Park on Friday, April 21st at 4:00 to celebrate Earth Day. We’ll have lots of fun flying kites, there is always PLENTY of wind, and there will be some extras to borrow if you don’t have one.
Fun at the South Lewis Art Show!
We had some great Rubberband Racers!
Don’t forget about our wonderful STEM kits we always have available to use. We have build-it kits, giant puzzles, a microscope, robobee, problem solvers, chain reactions, Legos, trains, marble drops, etc. The list goes on and on! If you don’t see what you want, just ask and we’ll get it out and help you get started.
“Snow Ridge: Through the Years”
The Tug Hill Commission, Snow Ridge Ski Resort and the Turin Library had a wonderful hybrid webinar: “Snow Ridge: Through the Years” on Sunday, January 29, 2023, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. .
The panel of speakers were: Jerome Britton and Bronny Davis, authors of “White Magic, The Story of Snow Ridge Ski Area;” Nancy Grisham, daughter of the original owners of Snow Ridge; Tom Smith, former Snow Ridge racer and coach; and Nick Mir, current owner of Snow Ridge. The link for this webinar is available on the Tug Hill Commission website. Check it out to see what you missed!
Enjoy this quick video of our wonderful day of memories!!!
Calendar Fundraiser
We still have a few calendars for sale! The calendars highlight “The Library Kids and Programs Through the Years!” A $20.00 donation is appreciated, and just $25.00 if you want to have one mailed to someone.
The very old “pencil main” that was accidently happened upon when the village was digging the water pipes, has been officially “aged”! Dr. Alexander K. Stewart from St. Lawrence University’s Geology Department has sent a letter with results from his studies. “The tree that was used to make the wooden watermain was cut between September 1881 – spring of 1882. The tree was native to Turin and is a red pine. The tree had 61 growth rings on it minus the center that was carved out, so it dates back to 175-180 years of age. The tree would have germinated sometime around 1800.” Thank you very much to Mike Petersen for the wonderful hemlock mantle he created to hold our “old treasure”!
We have received our first bench from the Trex Recycling Program. It is very nice, and we are already well on to earning another, so keep those unrecyclable plastics coming!
We are working on a date for our next Open Mic Night. These used to be very popular, and since covid restrictions are lessened, we want to start it up again!
Summer Events at the Turin Library : Park Concert, Bee Barn
The Summer Reading Program was a success! Thank you VERY much to the parents and helpers that made sure to get the kids here and encouraged them to read. The challenge was for us all to read 10,000 minutes in a five week period, and they met the challenge with a whopping 10,440!! Way to go!! We ended with a fun Party in the Park, check out our review video!