2019

Post date: Aug 20, 2019 1:14:4 AM

We were so happy to see you at the Festival by the Lake in Wakefield on Saturday, June 8th!

It was another beautiful day by the Lake this year. The typewriters were a big hit and in motion the entire time and our table was proud to display The Room to Write's New Business of the Year award from the Wakefield/Lynnfield Chamber of Commerce. We even got a photo, thanks to local Town Counselor Mehreen Butt, with Ryan Boyd at WCAT Studios with their well-deserved Business of the Year award.

So many people came to our table asking questions, offering suggestions and just plain supportive of the effort to keep writing skills sharp among people of all ages. We talked about our youth programming in collaboration with the Boys & Girls Club of Stoneham and Wakefield, our adult Critique Group and Meet & Greets, the ideas in the works for Senior Writing programming as well as the interest into the mechanics of the written word: handwriting, print-making, typing, calligraphy and writing utensils. I spoke to some young adults who are too old for a youth group and too young for an adult group. So, we're going to organize a Young Adult Critique Group as a resource for writers in their late teens and early twenties.

We ran out of all our brochures, which we'll take as a good sign of interest in what we're doing and made some great connections that will lead to interesting ideas in the future. No matter who came by there was always something that connected them to the written word or the act of putting words onto paper. It is just a matter of discovering how.

Special thanks to Sally Chetwynd who joined us at our table for several hours. She had her books, her CD and information about the upcoming 2019 New England Authors Expo on Saturday, June 29th Noon to 6:00 PM in Haverhilll, MA. A couple of our board members also stopped by as well as the tireless George Getty who helped set up and break down the table, tent and typewriters.

It was a great day!