By Mary Ellen Zangara, Special Writer
About 180 children, parents and grandparents joined in the Dr. Seuss Celebration at the Manville Public Library to mark the Cat in the Hat’s birthday.
The March 1 event was the second year the library celebrated the birthday of the late author Theodore Seuss Geisel also known as Dr. Seuss which is on March 2.
”This was our second annual Read Across America week and I think our celebration here at the Manville Public Library was better than last year,” said organizer and library trustee Jennifer Dietrich. “Again, the Weston teachers went above and beyond and it’s nice to see the teachers come out after school hours. We had nine teachers help and participate. They had all the grades involved; they were reading and playing birthday games.”
Susan Asher, representing the mayor and Borough Council, began the program with a welcome.
”On behalf of the mayor and council, I would like to welcome you to our library and I would like to welcome you to our Read Across America program. I would like to introduce two people who make this program possible. One is Ms. Dietrich, who is a teacher at Weston School, and the children’s librarian, Ms. Bielanski.” Ms. Asher had the honor of starting to read Dr. Seuss’s “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.”
Students from the classes of Paul Gallagher, Laura Landau, Ms. Dietrich, and Janine DaSilva presented Dr. Seuss books and read them. The Weston teachers and staff, featuring Heather Robustilli, Diana Lee, Kathy Montanelli, Don Frank, Karen Ziemaniak, Sandy Romano, Janine DaSilva and Tracy Fagan, performed a Cat in the Hat skit.
Sandy Scrape, Rebecca Higgins, Ruth Bielanski and members of the Manville Public Library also helped to organize the event and there was a birthday cake to help celebrate.
Contests for students from kindergartn to 12th grade were sponsored in honor of the famous author’s birthday. Students in grades K-5 created a diorama on one of the famous books about Dr. Seuss. Winners for the diorama contest included Jaydon Pirone, Sarah Kate Colucci, Ashley Tomaszfski, Tyler Kabys, Marina and Yekaterina Saburova, Jonathan Romczyk, Daniela Rincon, Morgan Barry and Grace Perun. Prizes were awarded at each grade level, including stuffed animals and gift cards.
Students in the older grades participated by creating a poster from one of the famous books. Posters were judged and the winner was Ian DeFalco, a student at Manville High School.
Three books were illustrated by MHS students as an assignment from their imaging technology class incorporating a Dr. Seuss story. Emily Barnes and Samantha Mooney; Paige Miller, Jessica Pankowski and Rebecca Roger; and Wilmay Cayanong, Magdalena Kloskowski and Cynthia Quinonez had their books on display.
”There were a lot of community members out tonight, which was great,” said Ms. Dietrioch. “It was great to see all the teachers putting in the extra effort to get the families out on nights like this, especially to encourage reading.
”The library is so lucky to have Rebecca and Ruth plan these events along with the teachers, she said. “It is great to see the collaboration between the two. Next year we look to making this event bigger by combining the school event with the library.”
For more information about other upcoming programs, call the Manville Public Library at (908) 722-9722.

