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Oktoberfest coming on Oct. 3
Larabee Library News
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courtesy photo Children enjoy an afternoon of board games at the Nora Larabee Memorial Library.

STAFFORD — What’s coming up next in Stafford? Oktoberfest! The schedule is out.

Oktoberfest will be Saturday Oct. 3, but things really get started on Friday night with food trucks, home SHS Trojan Nation football game, and karaoke at the beer garden downtown. Saturday will have events, crafts, parade, gigantic book sale, and the alumni banquet. Registration forms for the alumni banquet are available at the library. Come to this fun time at Stafford.

What else happens at Oktoberfest? Chance encounters and finding common ground.

CBS Sunday Morning had a couple segments on chance encounters. The first chance encounter was discovered through a simple school project. A teacher asked students to talk to their relatives that had stories about World War II and document them. Through this project, pictures and the story of a train near Magdeburg were discovered. On April 13, 1945, American soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 30th Infantry Division and 743rd Tank Battalion discovered an abandoned train carrying roughly 2,500 starving Jewish prisoners near the town of Magdeburg. They immediately stopped their advance and started feeding the prisoners and giving them medical help. To find out more about this horrific chance encounter, read “A Train Near Magdeburg” or watch the documentary by the same name.

Another chance encounter happened in Austin Texas. A young Indiana University alumni encountered a homeless person with an Indiana University backpack. He started a conversation and found that the homeless person was Sampson James, former IU star running back. He had blown out his knee in football and suffered a bi-polar episode and lost everything except the backpack. Through this chance encounter, a Go Fund Me fund raiser was set up to get him a home, supplies and help to get his life back.

These chance encounters have two morals:

  • We will all have moments when we have a choice whether to reach out to a fellow human being or not. What will your choice be?
  • The value of education – We are always told not to forget significant events, but what if you never learned of the event to begin with?

Library calendar

  • The library’s Sept. 9 board meeting was rescheduled to Sept. 16.
  • Puzzle Table everyday
  • Shred-it Box to safely destroy personal records
  • Monday morning 10-11 a.m. - Preschool Story Hour
  • Reading Road Trip Book Challenge
  • Every Wednesday except 2nd Wednesday - ESOL with Rachel Sandoval at 6 p.m.
  • Sept. 22 - Recently Read - 5:30 p.m. Come enhance our conversation.
  • Victorian Christmas Ornaments Workshops - TBA.
  • Nov. 17 - Marcia’s workshop
  • Read Everyday - Live a Better Life

Gerry Hildebrand is the head librarian for the Nora Larabee Memorial Library, 108 N. Union St. in Stafford. Phone 620-234-5762, email larabeelibrary@gmail.comor visit Facebook at Nora Larabee Memorial Library. Library hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday; 2-6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.