2009 Winning Title: Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

• "Tell Us What It Was Like: Seniors recall the fabric of life during the Great Depression"
• "Cooking in Lean Times" Cooking Show
• "Challenges of Coping with the 'Brave New World'" with Dr. Rudy Nydegger
• "Riding the Rails: the Great Depression as the Context for Water for Elephants"
  with Dr. Andrew Morris, Ph.D.
• "I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt" with Maryanne Malecki
• "Family Fun Circus Day" with Mr. Beau the Clown & Circus Red
  with Rich Kuperberg of Komotion
• "Everything's Coming up Rosie" book discussion with Gordon Turner, Susannah Risley, and Dr. Noha Abou-Madi, DVM, Msc.

 

2008 Winning Title: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

• Kabul Transit discussion with David B. Edwards
• Kabul in Winter program with author, Ann Jones
• Service project: working with the Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation
• Book and film discussion with Jack Rightmyer and Casey Seiler
• Afghan Culture Fest with food; music by Hossin Noorzai; dancing by Sarah Khaliqi and friends; and cultural demos including afghan kite fighting by Alireza Jawanshir

 

 

2007 Winning Title: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

• “Brave New World: the Bioethical Issues Raised in My Sister’s Keeper” led by Robert Baker with a book review by Sue Lehrman
• "An Afternoon with Jodi Picoult” 
• Service project: Have a Heart Survival Kits for Albany Medical Center
  Pediatric Oncology Unit
• Community Book Discussion

 

 

2006 Winning Title: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

• Pass the Book
• Get Caught Reading
• Service project: collecting goods for Bethesda House
• “Bela Lugosi, Rosa Parks, and Harper Lee” led by Claudia Durst Johnson, Ph.D
• Film discussion led by Dan DiNicola