Stardust Books to go non-profit

Contributed by Diane Morgan

Some of you may know that Diane Morgan, formerly the manager of Stardust Books, is leading efforts to transition Stardust from a traditional retail store  into a non-profit that would enable it to expand its offerings to the community. Below is a press release from Diane, explaining the project more thoroughly.

2009 begins the 7^th year of Stardust Books and Café.

Now an established business in Craftsbury, Stardust is ready to expand and we are planning to become a

Nonprofit organization!

The bookstore and cafe have become an integral part of the Craftsbury “scene”. Craftsbury area patrons have enjoyed access to the store for their individual reading pleasure, for gifts, and for delicious hot drinks and social gathering. Local residents and tourists alike have offered many compliments on the atmosphere, inventory, and friendly booksellers and baristas.

While keeping the same mission of teaching teens the value of work, entrepreneurship, workplace skills, and small business management, becoming a nonprofit would allow us to tie in all of the other activities we have held at Stardust and include many more. Thus far, uses of the Stardust building have included a monthly adult book discussion group, a teen book club, painting classes, a women’s drumming group, and author events.

Run by a Board of Directors with new energy and ideas, there is no limit to how many additional ways the Stardust space and business could be expanded

to enrich the lives and experiences of the Craftsbury area youth,

as well as the entire community.

Some possibilities include:

• expand our partnerships with the schools


• form a Craftsbury crafts cooperative


• offer additional workshops, lessons, presentations


• create a teen center……

……The sky’s the limit!!!!

We would like YOUR input. If you would like to serve on a Board and/or just offer your ideas on this exciting opportunity, please contact

Diane Morgan (586-9697, morgand@vtlink.net) or

Linda Ramsdell (472-5533, galaxy@vtlink.net)

THANK YOU!!!

Green eggs for breakfast

written by Sandy

This Wednesday, Linda and I had a terrific morning with Lesa, Angela, and the rest of the Hardwick Head Start and Early Head Start crew. They invited us to come by for breakfast and storytime (also known as "circle") so that they could show us some of the things they bought with the money raised in our Read-a-Thon last October. For anyone not familiar with the Read-a-Thon, we had nearly 40 participants who spent some part or all of 24 hours at The Galaxy Bookshop doing a reading marathon fundraiser. The community raised over $800 for Hardwick Head Start!

With that money, Early Head Start and Head Start were able to purchase new furniture for their circle area, some books, and a gift certificate to The Galaxy Bookshop for every student enrolled in the program.

We started off the morning with a breakfast of very green eggs, with ham (not green), toast, juice, and milk. Not everyone was brave enough to try the colorful eggs, but those who did agreed that they tasted very good, and quite a bit like regular eggs. After breakfast, Lesa presented us with an oversized book that the teachers and students had put together for us, called The Big Thank You Book.

[caption id="attachment_138" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Messages from the Head Start students"][/caption]

It tells the story of the Read-a-Thon, along with photos from the big event, some lovely glitter art, and handwritten notes from every student at the end of the book. We'll be keeping the book on display in the store, so please come by to see it!

Spending time with the people at Head Start, we were able to see first hand what a wonderful service they are offering to the community. It's not an easy task to keep 26 small children focused, engaged, and well-behaved, but the Head Start team is doing just that, every day. They, and we, are so grateful to the support our community showed for Head Start's work by participating in our Read-a-Thon. We anticipate holding a second Read-a-Thon fundraiser this fall, so stay tuned for future updates. If you would like to be involved, please get in touch with us at the bookstore anytime.

[caption id="attachment_139" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Our Big Bear enjoys The Big Thank You Book"][/caption]

Look at us, all online and Blogging!

written by Sandy Scott

It's an historic event - the first post on Written in the Stars. First of all, I must mention that  it was  my dear friend Morgan, who, in a typical fit of genius, came up with the title of our blog.  It took her all of ten seconds to think of something that would have taken me days. Thanks, Morgan!

This is one of the many benefits of surrounding yourself with smart, creative people --you get to steal their ideas!

However, we are looking forward to sharing lots of our own ideas here, including book reviews and thoughts about the wonderful world of bookselling. We'd also welcome guest bloggers, so if you have something you'd like to share here, please drop us a line or come by the store to talk about making that happen.

One last note - we can't, at this time, guarantee a new post every day, but plan to begin by posting one to two times per week. For now, look for guaranteed new posts on Fridays, with occasional extras earlier in the week. Of course, you can sign up for the RSS feed, if you'd like to be notified when our new posts are up!