Hats Off to the Library This Sunday

"Hats Off to the Library" is a first-time event to benefit Maplewood Memorial Library, but it's an event that makes sense.

After all, what better way to cap off filling your head with everything from hard news to great works of literature than with a hat?

The idea belongs to former Library Board member Marcia Leonard who'd been collecting hats at area estate sales and church rummage sales. "I started seeing all these wonderful hats and they reminded me of the little ladies who looked like Mamie Eisenhower."

The event is a ladies-only shindig celebrating the fact that "women wear may hats." Women attending are encouraged to express themselves in colorful, stylish and imaginative headgear.

Prizes will be awarded for the most "beautiful, unusual and create hats" worn by attendees.

Leonard will donate more than 50 hats to be raffled off at the Hats Off to the Library event which takes place on Sunday, May 1, 2011 from 3 to 5 pm. at the main library branch.

There will also be refreshments and live music.

Laura Nial, President of Friends of the Library, noted that the Hats Off event is a continuation of grassroots fundraising efforts that flourished last year when the library . Karen Pettis, former President of the Library Board of Trustees, stressed that the momentum needed to continue. "We need to raise awareness."

Pettis, Nial, and Leonard, as well as Library Board of Trustees President Katherine Hilaire and VP Carol Buchanan were at the main branch this Thursday to promote the event. The ladies looked prettier than a row of pansies in their colorful caps and brought a breath of spring into the library.

Tickets to Hats Off are $25 and will be available at the door or you can email hats@maplewoodlibrary.org to reserve your spot or send your check payable to "Maplewood Memorial Library (note "Hats off to the Library!") at the Maplewood Library, 51 Baker St., Maplewood, NJ 07040. Although the event is women only, all donations are gratefully accepted.

And there should be more opportunities coming to support the library. Buchanan said that the lemonade stands that proliferated to raise funds for the library last year may continue again this summer.

But only when the weather gets a little hotter.

Meanwhile, you can shield your noggin against this chill spring with a fashionable hat or two. Or 50.