Attleboro’s Path of Kindness: Community Read 2024-2025

This year’s Community Read is a testimony to the magic that happens when people come together around reading. It celebrates the kindness present in Attleboro every day. Over the course of eight months (September 2024-April 2025), participants will explore four books and enjoy events across the city that promote the power of being kind.

KINDNESS NEWSLETTER

Keep informed about all things kind in Attleboro by signing up for this newsletter, to be sent out monthly during the Community Read. It will have updates on programs, books, and much more. Here is the latest issue for you to enjoy.

KINDNESSES IN ATTLEBORO

Our city is full of kind people and organizations who help out their neighbors and provide other acts of kindness. If you’ve completed or heard about an act of kindness, please tell us about it using this form! Responses will be used to create a living chain of kindness to be displayed in the library.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

Below are the latest kindness programs offered by APL and its partners. Click on the link to register for each program.

Monday, January 6, 6:30-7:30pm: Snowy Stories: Attleboro Council on Aging READS! (for grades K-4; bring your reading passport to get stamped!)

Wednesday, January 15, 6:30-8pm: Nature in Winter (Presented by Mass Audubon’s Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary)

Wednesday, January 22, 3:30-4:30pm: Kindness Club (Grades 5-12) (hosted by APL’s Mrs. Witherell and the Olivia Knighton Foundation)

Thursday, January 23, 7-8pm: Parents Book Club/Kindness Book Club: Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books (hosted by APL’s Reader Services Coordinator)

UPCOMING: Programs with the Attleboro Area Interfaith Collaborative!

KICKOFF EVENT

On Saturday, September 7, at 2:00pm, the Attleboro Arts Museum will debut its exhibition, “Here, I’ll Get That for You: Strokes of Kindness – In Art, In Life.” Invited artists will exhibit work paying tribute to a cause or organization that is dear to them or shines a light on a non-profit organization that serves audiences in Greater Attleboro. The organizations highlighted in the opening exhibit will be featured in library displays and programs for the next seven months to keep their important, bighearted work in the public eye and to encourage locals to get involved in their mission. Limited copies of The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy, the first of the four books to be read (see “The Books” section below) will be available at the opening and copies will be available for check out at the Library.

FEATURED SPEAKER

Poet James Crews, editor of The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy, will give a presentation on his work and reflect on the importance of noticing kindness around us. His presentation will occur on Saturday, September 14, at 2:00pm at the Attleboro Arts Museum. You can read more about him HERE.

THE BOOKS

Four books will be read this year—a decidedly new concept, but one we think has value and resonance. The first title, inspiring the entire Community Read, is The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy edited by James Crews. The second title, debuting in November, is Pay It Forward, a work of fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

In January, a new novel, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller, will be shared. Finally, March will highlight an inspirational nonfiction book: Dare to Be Kind by Lizzie Velásquez with Catherine Avril Morris.

Each book will have both a book club kit and individual copies of the title available for check out at APL. Library staff will lead a public book discussion of each title and initiate a campaign to encourage people to pay kindness forward and to submit their kind gestures to the library to share with the community.

OTHER FUN EVENTS

As always, a Community Read is a multi-organizational effort. (The Library is not alone in bringing people together around books!) In addition to the exhibit at the Attleboro Arts Museum, Bristol Community College will be screening the Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? on Tuesday, October 22; the Olivia Knighton Foundation has inspired the creation of a Library-based Kindness Club that will debut on Wednesday, October 30; and additional partners like the Attleboro Area Interfaith Collaborative will be hosting events along the way. Check out our events calendar to find these events.

And for a second consecutive year, the Attleboro Public Schools will partner on Attleboro READS!, a series of family storytelling events featuring guest readers from our community. Get your Reading Passport stamped at each of these. Here are the dates for the first three READS! events:

Monday, October 28, 6:30pm: Attleboro Historical Commission (Rachel Killion, guest reader)
Monday, November 18, 6:30pm: Veterans Department, City of Attleboro (Ben Quelle, guest reader)
Monday, December 16, 6:30pm: Attleboro Commission on Disabilities (Mary Flaherty, guest reader)