Posted on Mar 03, 2017

On Thursday evening, 2 March 2017, the SNP Rotary honored the librarians of Summit and New Providence as our Citizens of the Year. In all, seventeen librarians attended representing the New Providence Memorial Library, the NP Elementary Schools, NP Middle School and NP High School, and the Summit Free Public Library, the Summit Elementary Schools, the Summit Middle School and the Summit High School. In addition to the honorees, approximately eighty Rotarians and guests were in attendance.

We honor these accomplished individuals whose work insures that all of our citizens, young and old, have access to the information they need to enjoy the process of discovery and learning and to build skills in a vast array of subjects from the arts and sciences to business and technology, medicine and wellbeing, and government and civics.

There was a short program which included statements from the program Chair, Melanie Cohn, Rotary President, Susan Haig, and Scholarship Chair, Ellen Dickson. This was followed by brief comments from representatives of each of the several library systems. The librarians gave a very short description of the many, many activities and services offered by their respective facilities which are an extensive selection raging from story time for toddlers to film series for seniors, weekly concerts, a 3-D lab, extensive reference materials, CDs, music, audio book selections, magazines, periodicals, and excellent physical spaces which include large and small meeting rooms.

Our public and school libraries are core treasures of Summit and New Providence and Rotary is proud to honor the people who run them with efficiency and allow us unfettered access to the information we need on an ongoing basis.

And finally, this event is also the primary annual sponsorship for our Scholarship Fund. Through the enormous efforts of our program chair, Melanie Cohn and Rotary President, Susan Haig, and a dozen other Rotarians, we raised a little over $8,000. Thank you to all the generous donors who helped make this a wonderful celebration and a successful raise for another year of scholarships.

Our Citizens of the Year:

Cindy Abramov, Washington School, Summit

Ann-Marie Aymer, Summit Free Public Library

Abigail Brady, Summit Free Public Library

Colleen Byrne, Director, New Providence Memorial Library

Brandee Conover, Roberts Elementary School, New Providence

Michelle Demich, New Providence Memorial Library

Karen Doherty, Jefferson School, Summit

Lisa Florio, New Providence Memorial Library

Megan Hartley, Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School

Courtney Kaczynski, Brayton School, Summit

Paula McGraw, New Providence High School

Amelia Nagle, New Providence Middle School

Susan Permahos, Director, Summit Free Public Library

Judy Shue, Summit High School

Loreli Stochaj, Franklin School, Summit

Carole Stubeck, Lincoln-Hubbard School, Summit

Kerry Sullivan, New Providence Memorial Library

Beth Thomas, Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School

Rebecca Zarabi, Summit High School