Aurora the polar bear: Andover's next selectman?
People certainly have shown they'll turn out to vote for the Memorial Hall Library bear.
This August, 3,230 total ballots were cast to chose the names of the polar bears in Vermont sculptor Jim Sardonis' work "Vigilance" in front of Memorial Hall Library.
A total of 2,769 votes were cast in the March 25, 2008 town election that sent Mary Lyman back to the Board of Selectmen and Dennis Forgue to the School Committee. The library contest did have an advantage — people could vote online or in person at the library as often as they wanted throughout the event, and many votes were cast by children too young to vote in a normal town election.
On Aug. 22, the library announced which monikers received the most votes: Aurora for the mother bear, and Klondike, Snowflake and Grace for her three cubs.
"Participation shows how much folks love their bears," said Emily Classon, community librarian, as she watched the excited chaos of the library's Safari Ice Cream Social last Friday afternoon, when the bears' names were revealed.
As she dug into her ice-cream cup, Andover 7-year-old Kathleen Hartnett said she liked the bears' new names, and Snowflake was her favorite. It's a good name for a polar bear, she said, smiling, "because they live in snow."
Library Director Jim Sutton said he was "just flabbergasted" by the number of votes cast.
The library hopes to host an essay-writing contest soon, where people of all ages could write the back story to Aurora, Klondike, Snowflake and Grace. It will be interesting to see what Andover's creative writers can weave, said Classon, about why the bears are named the way they are, and how they made it to Andover from the Arctic.
The polar bear naming contest tied in well with the statewide summer library theme of Wild Reads. Memorial Hall has been doing animal-themed activities and reading programs all summer, with record turnout, Sutton said.
"Nearly 600 kids signed up. It's been great," he said. "Circulation is up, more people are using the library and reading. This has been the busiest July I've had, and I've been here 15 years."
At the ice cream social, youngsters exchanged summer "book bucks" — dollar-shaped credits given to children for reading books and visiting the library — for small toys and new books.
At one prize table, Classon was handing out books busily to youngsters who eagerly forked over their hard-earned book bucks.
Holding a large wad of yellow currency equal to hundreds of real dollars, she remarked "Can you believe this? This is all the kids that came into the library this summer."
