Food, Gardening, and a Big Year for Birds this Week at Stark County District Library

This week's featured events at Stark County District Library include something for your head, stomach, and your heart, with Classic Lit Book Club, the start of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program at 2 locations, Raising Children to Be Good Eaters, and a visit from Greg Miller, local birding superstar and one of the inspirations for the movie, The Big Year.

Each program below is linked to the Stark County District Library Events calendar, where you'll get more information about the program (such as the time the event is offered) and have the opportunity to register online or by phone to attend.

The North Branch Classic Lit Book Club meets on Wednesday, Mar 7 to discuss Jane Austen's Emma. It's a great way to acquaint (or re-acquaint) yourself with the classics. The club meets on the first Wednesday of the month. Next month's book is A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program presented by The Ohio State University Extension in Stark County begins at both DeHoff Memorial Branch (Wednesday, Mar 7) and East Canton Branch (Thursday, Mar 8) this week. The program will help families with children learn about nutrition, meal planning, stretching food dollars, and increasing exercise. Food tastings and recipes are also provided at this interactive program.

Main Library will offer a Homeowner Information Class taught by attorneys from Community Legal Aid on Thursday, Mar 8. Topics of the class include: How to be considered for loan modification programs to keep your home; How to obtain free legal help; Is bankruptcy an option to keep your home?; and much more.

On Saturday, Mar 10, you can get ready for Spring with Barb Huth from the Dumont Seed Co. She'll present Seed Starting/Cross Pollination and Companion Gardening at Main Library. You'll learn all about how and when to start seeds indoors, and which plants are compatable and even helpful to one another when planted side-by-side, and which plant combinations to avoid.

Do you have a child who's a picky eater? Learn how to teach your children to eat healthy at Raising Children to Be Good Eaters on Monday, Mar 12 at Jackson Township Branch. Bonnie Boyd, RD/LD will present ideas for showing children how to eat sensibly.

Perry Sippo Branch will begin a fun lunchtime series on Tuesday, Mar 13: From Book to Big Screen Brown Bag Lunch Discussion. Bring your lunch and join us two Tuesdays a month to talk about the similarities and differences between some of the best contemporary books that have been made into movies. Tuesday's movie viewing will be The Lincoln Lawyer; then next week, on Mar 20, we'll talk about the movie and the book The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. They'll have extra copies of the books at the check out desk.

Also on Tuesday, Mar 13, at Lake Community Branch, you'll have the opportunity to meet local Birder Greg Miller who will talk about his attempt to see as many species of birds as possible in one year, as well as what it was like to work with Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson on the set of the film The Big Year, which was inspired by Greg's experiences. Greg's quest and competition with other birders was also chronicled in Pulitzer Prize-Winning author Mark Obmacik's book, The Big Year : a tale of man, nature, and fowl obsession. Additionally, Miller also writes an entertaining and informative blog about birding at www.GregMillerBirding.com.

There are many other excellent events planned at a branch of the Stark County District Library near you, including children's story times, book groups for adults, computer classes, programs for teens, and much more. For a full listing of events and programs, check www.StarkLibrary.org/eventscalendar and find something that enriches and inspires you today.