NEWPORT — Evergreen boughs and red velvet ribbons have replaced summer blooms in the flower boxes at the Newport Cultural Center on Main Street.

The greenery will be augmented Friday by six Christmas trees donated by Nutkin Knoll Farm in Newburgh. By then, the trees will bear baubles, bulbs and tinsel, decorated by Newport Elementary School pupils in pre-kindergarten through grade four.

The trees will be bathed in light at the Memorial Tree Lighting Ceremony beginning at 6 p.m. The event will offer a winter hayride with Tyler Norris at the reins, cocoa and cookies, and holiday music with former Regional School Unit 19 music teacher Bruce Brown and his Con Brio Brass.

Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus will arrive on a firetruck, courtesy of the Newport Fire Department.

“There is no way we could do these programs without our volunteers, and people who donate money and other things,” said children’s librarian Joanne Elwell. “Key Club members from Nokomis High School volunteer to pass out the cocoa and cookies and sing carols with the kids at the tree lighting. We work closely in partnership with the schools in RSU 19.”

The library at the cultural center serves the towns of Corinna, Dixmont, Etna, Hartland, Newport, Plymouth, St. Albans and Stetson.

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Elwell has worked at the library for 11 years. “I like everything about it,” she said. “Parents, children, volunteers. Newport has a strong sense of community. People are willing to work together to make things happen for the kids.”

Among the many volunteers who pitch in to make the holiday season bright is 85-year-old Dale Carsley, who for more than six years has set up an elaborate electric train set at the center. The display includes a “Maine Central” railroad engine hauling a cargo of a Santa in a snow globe with the snowflakes a-whirling when the train moves. The layout features a village of ceramic houses lit from inside and embellished with “bottle brush” miniature trees donated by Lourdes “Annie” Wiswell.

Carsley, who said he likes volunteering, uses his knowledge as a longtime electric train enthusiast to keep the display moving steadily around the track for the delight of all.

Children also will have the opportunity to learn how to make holiday pillowcases and to attend a gingerbread man workshop at the center. Those activities begin at 10 a.m. Saturday. Advance registration is required by calling the center at 368-5074.

Raffle tickets for the prize of a Harry Potter Hogwarts Express electric train set will be available for purchase beginning Friday. Other prizes to be raffled off include gift cards from local businesses and two child-themed gift baskets. The cost of tickets is one for $1 or six for $5. Elwell said raffle proceeds will go back into children’s programming at the center.

Because of its popularity, an extra date has been added to the center’s Polar Express Pajama Party, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Dec. 15-16, at the center. It will feature Nokomis High School teacher Nathan Roach reading the much-loved “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg, published in 1985, and now deemed a Christmas classic story for young children.

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“He does all the voices and all the sounds in the story,” Elwell said. Children of all ages are invited to attend wearing pajamas. Advance registration is required — starting Tuesday — by calling the center at 368-5074. Only 50 participants will be admitted to each session.

Volunteer Jessica Ballard will create a fireplace and a train station for the pajama party, Elwell said. Ballard also created a special holiday bulletin board for the children’s area at the library.

Other volunteers who will help out with the holiday events are the Nokomis High School Show Choir and Erin Bessey, a junior at Nokomis, and her brother Connor Bessey, a seventh-grader. The Bessey children have been volunteers at the library for about seven years, Elwell said.

An added feature of the center’s holiday season is its Giving Tree. The tree bears tags with gift requests from area families in need of a little extra help at this time of year. Elwell said Vic Firth, owner of a company that makes drumsticks in Newport, and his employees take 75 tags from the Giving Tree each year and buy gifts to put under the tree.

Anyone who wants to fulfill a child’s Christmas wish may take a tag, buy the item and place it under the tree. The gifts will be distributed before Dec. 25.

“I like to tell children (who come to the center) that the library isn’t mine. It’s theirs and they have to be a part of it, to feel ownership for it, to help it succeed,” Elwell said.


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