Appearing simultaneously in Ninnau & Y Drych

by Mona Everett

It is hard to believe, but it's that time of year again! Once again, the Briceville, TN, Public Library is asking people to send holiday cards to the children of Briceville. Lynette Seeber, the librarian, puts them all in a basket and the children can each open one. If there is a little gift inside, the child keeps it, if there is money inside, it goes in the summer reading program fund. (You don't need to put anything in the card, though.) Lynette has all the cards they have received from all over, including Wales, in notebooks that she happily shows visitors. If you have a Welsh or coal mining connection and can include a short note to the children, that is really great, but all cards are gratefully received and mean a lot to the children.

Briceville was settled by Welsh coal miners and was a real boom town in its day. Regular readers of Ninnau & Y Drych will have seen several articles about the Welsh coal-mining heritage of this area. There is also a wonderful website that showcases the many preservation activities regularly undertaken by the community. The Coal Creek Watershed Foundation http://www.coalcreekaml.com/ continues to work with school children to reclaim the creek for fish and also planted chestnut trees again. They have sponsored an Eisteddfod at the school for a couple years, too, and have preserved the Welsh church and much of the mining history of the area.

Here's the address:

Briceville Public Library

Children's Christmas Card

Lynette Seeber, Library Director

P.O. Box 361

Briceville, TN 37710

USA

Be sure to put 'Children's Christmas Card' on the envelope so Lynette doesn't open it.

The need is especially great this year. On a recent visit to Briceville, I was thrilled to hear that the funding for the new library had been approved and they hope to move in by next summer. Lynette graciously had asked all her 'regular donors' to direct their money to the building fund, but that has left her without funds to support her extra programs for the children, so she has been bearing most of those costs herself. She works very hard to help the children keep reading all year long and provides school supplies that they can just come in and take when they need them.

For anyone traveling in the vicinity of Knoxville, I highly recommend stopping in Bricevilleyou will find a very gracious welcome and history lesson at the library, and I guarantee you will come away with a warm feeling for the dedication of people like Lynette!

Thanks!!