On November 4, election day, we are having our annual soup day. Miss Czech-Slovak Iowa, Janna Waters, will be appearing at soup day, at the Legion Hall from five to seven pm. Janna is the daughter of Pat and Joan Waters of Marshalltown. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 2013 and is currently a graduate student. She works as a teaching assistant in the Department of Asian and Slavic languages and Literatures, and she is the founder and president of the Czech Connection at the University of Iowa. Her future plans include obtaining a PhD. in Russian and Central Eastern European History and to teach at the university level. Janna’s grandparents were John and Pearl Schoenfelder of Clutier and her mother was raised in Clutier. John taught school in Clutier for many years and was the coach of the state championship girls basketball team.

We have been busy with other activities at the Clutier Library. The kids have been really active in the library since school started. Preschoolers come in each Thursday afternoon for storytime and an activity. School children are here one Saturday morning each month for reading and a project. In October we had pumpkins donated and we had two sessions of pumpkin painting. It was loud, it was messy and it was a lot of fun, for the kids as well as me. Cleanup, not so much! Also, we have started showing movies on the Mondays that school is not in session and plan to continue that throughout the school year. In October we had a picture drawing contest for fire prevention month and the winners of the McDonald’s gift certificates were Thomas Hulme and Emily Hulme.

Every Monday we have coffee for anyone who comes in and we average ten people each week, It has been a great way for our community members to come together, get acquainted with new residents, and get reacquainted with folks they may not have seen for a while, When this was started, the plan was for the library to pay for the coffee and supplies, but Lhrough the generosity of our coffee drinkers, Coffee Monday has become self-supporting. Some leave money, some leave cans of coffee, and some ~n the group just randomly bring in treats. This group has been a wonderful addition to our library activities and many of the participants are some of our volunteers.

Recent acquisitions are: The River by Beverly Lewis, Neverhome by Laird Hunt, Killing Patton by Bill O’Reilly, Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs, Who Stole the Animal Poop by Buck Wilder, Burn by James Patterson, The Lost Key by Catherine Coulter, Deadline by John Sandford, Full Measure by T Jefferson Parker, Happy Dreams by Linda Wiges, and Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand.