BACK TO THE GARDEN The Friends of the Mt. Lebanon Public Library’s 32nd Annual Garden Tour is moving back outside. While you can still take the virtual tour that’s been offered the past two years, patrons will have the option of attending the tour in person.
Tickets for the tour, which runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, June 26, are $15. Buy them at the library or online [1].
In order to keep the crowd size manageable, the library is capping sales at 300. Pick up a tour program book at any of the garden locations.
This year’s tour features six distinctive Mt. Lebanon gardens, including the return of one of the gardens that was featured on the first garden tour.
Since that first tour in 1991, the Friends have raised more than $565,500 for extras such as the library’s outdoor courtyard and equipment for the maker space, in addition to books, audio-visual materials, magazines, programs, and technology for patrons of all ages.
SHINE ON The library is focusing on mental wellness and self-care with its new initiative, Shine@MLPL. The plan combines programs, special collections and resource centers for children and families, teens and adults that include information from local mental wellness agencies.
Each part of the special collection will be housed within the section of the library that serves each age group. The library is working on developing booklists, displays and newsletters to highlight the collections.
Programs will focus on building resiliency through stress reduction with classes on meditation and relaxation, art therapy and nature activities, and on building bridges to outside agencies, with workshops on suicide prevention, workshops for caregivers and strategies for breaking down social stigma and other barriers to self-care.
Funding for the initiative comes from Matt’s Maker Space, a nonprofit founded by Noelle and David Conover in memory of their son, Matt, who passed away at age 12 from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.