Events Calendar

Join us in the Tabor Room every Monday! Newcomers welcome.

Join Jodi Bloom, college funding expert and founder of Cornerstone College Solutions, as she helps grandparents learn unique strategies to help fund college in an effective and efficient way!
• How much can you gift to your family without tax consequences?
• Gain an understanding of how different strategies affect financial aid
• Pros and Cons of various investment vehicles that can be used for gifting
• Alternative investment vehicles that enable savings to be used for more than just educational expenses

This workshop will be held virtually on Zoom. Register now to receive the link!

About Jodi Bloom
Jodi is a college funding expert and the founder of Cornerstone College Solutions. She and her team have helped hundreds of families, with children of all ages, to navigate the nuances of college funding by educating about the process. She works collaboratively with families to develop comprehensive college plans with tailored strategies to address their overriding concerns about how to pay for college without jeopardizing retirement and provide financial alternatives to meet each family's unique goals and cost requirements. Jodi is a Certified College Funding Specialist (CCFS), has spent 12 years in the financial services industry, and with three college-aged children, has first-hand experience of the college funding process. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and is frequently responsible for educating certified public accountants to earn their continuing professional education credits in college planning. She has been sponsored by over 65 organizations and institutions to educate families about the important aspects of college and retirement planning, maximizing need-based and merit-based aid, savings and tax-mitigating strategies, and the diversification and protection of assets. Jodi is committed to helping to make planning and saving for college less stressful for families of all income and asset levels, identifying ways to reduce the cost of college, and lessening the financial burden for families to send their children to their dream schools. Jodi recognizes that sending your children to college is your utmost priority... Enabling you to do so financially is hers!

Before planes, trains, or automobiles, there were super-highways powered by hay. Some remain: the Erie and Panama Canals; China’s 5,000 year-old Grand Canal; and the Canal du Midi from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean (with Leonardo da Vinci’s help). Forgotten are NJ’s 100 mile long, mountain-climbing Morris Canal, drained 100 years ago; and the Pharaohs’ Canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, dug 4,000 years before Mr. Eiffel’s visit linked the Suez to the Panama.

*This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Madison Library*

Come practice your spanish with us! This program is for adults who already have a foundation in the language.

Please join us for a brief exploration of the miniature community that could be living in your own home garden. Learn how to create your own Monarch Butterfly Waystation and enjoy the visiting Monarchs. But there are other butterflies and moths and some very beneficial insects that will also visit your waystation. In this slideshow, you will understand the basic requirements of a butterfly waystation, and be introduced to a few of the most common garden visitors in our area and some of the plants that will attract them.  
Joan Maccari, a Madison resident and an environmental educator, will be your guide on this exploration. She is a member of the Native Plant Society of NJ and of the Madison Environmental Commission with an MS in Biology and 16 years’ experience gardening with native plants. 

Sponsored by Madison Environmental Commission and Madison Public Library.

Join us to discuss How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. "When the technologies we use every day collapse our experiences into 24/7 availability, platforms for personal branding, and products to be monetized, nothing can be quite so radical as… doing nothing. Here, Jenny Odell sends up a flare from the heart of Silicon Valley, delivering an action plan to resist capitalist narratives of productivity and techno-determinism, and to become more meaningfully connected in the process." --Provided by the Publisher

The plight of native pollinators and the managed honey bee has been recognized as a serious agricultural problem worldwide. Destruction of native habitat through land development, negative effects of pesticide use, and a parasitic mite that weakens the honey bee have all contributed to the dwindling of managed honey bee and wild bee populations.

Adele Barree, retired librarian and sideline beekeeper of nearly 12 years, is looking forward to sharing her love of the European honey bee, Apis mellifera,
some of the joys and challenges of beekeeping and a few things we can all do to help the honey bees. The talk will conclude with a tasting of several varietal New Jersey honeys.

*This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Madison Library*

New comers welcome. Must be 18 years or older due to mature content.

Join us to discuss Strange Adventures by Tom King. "This new science fiction epic written by bestselling author Tom King reinvents one of DC's classic adventure characters, Adam Strange. Born on Earth and hero of the distant planet Rann, Adam Strange is famous throughout the galaxy for his bravery and honor. After leading his adopted home to victory in a great planetary war, Adam and his wife, Alanna, retire to Earth, where they are greeted with cheers, awards, and parades. But not all is as it seems, as the decisions Adam made during battles on Rann come back to haunt his family. It will take an investigation by one of the most brilliant heroes in the DC Universe, Mr. Terrific, to uncover the truth and reveal whether Adam Strange is a hero or a disgrace." --Provided by the publisher

In 1846 the first officially recorded baseball game took place at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ. This game was played under the rules of Alexander Cartwright and generally resembled the game we know today. Over the years since then, baseball has changed a little but remains essentially the same. Of course, players now use gloves in the field and wear batting helmets while at the plate, but nine people still take the field and nine innings make up a game. The biggest change was when the American League instituted the designated hitter in 1973. This lecture will touch upon the history of baseball and how it has become part of the fabric of the American way of life. Jason Love has a history degree from West Chester University and is the author of Slices of Americana: A Road Trip Through American Baseball History by Sunbury Press.
*This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Madison Library*

While women's rights campaigns started as early as the 1830s, women didn't gain the vote until 1920. One way we can understand the evolution of women's rights is through what they wore and why. By dissecting 19th century women's fashion and culture, we can better understand the evolution of the Victorian mindset and its impact on the American woman's ever-shifting identity.

Abagail is the Administrative Assistant of two departments on the Florham campus:  Social Sciences & History, and Criminology & Criminal Justice. She has an M.F.A in Creative Writing with Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a B.A in Creative Writing and Fine Arts from the College of Saint Elizabeth. 

*This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Madison Library*

A century ago, the 18th Amendment was passed which prohibited the ‘manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes’ – for 13 years! During this zoom tour we will explore the dynamics that led to this most unusual law and the most interesting ways in which people dealt with it or worked round it. Since this time also fell into the Great Depression, people had to get quite creative to have a grand time, which many of them definitely did – it is also the roaring 20s and  the Jazz age! How did people ge their drinks? How did breweries survive? Where were all these speakeasies in NYC and which ones survive? Which are the coolest new bars inspired by that time? How are the Mafia, Nascar and #86 connected? AND how did it finally end?! It is and intriguing story for sure!

*This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Madison Library*

Join us to learn about the benefits of the Mediterranean diet!

“Unpacking Hemingway” examines what we know about Hemingway, and how and why we know it. Is what we know accurate? If not, how did the inaccuracies start, and what we can do to correct them? We need to look at why we believe what we do about Hemingway, and how we might rethink and change that. As long as we think of him, on the one hand, as an avatar of all things masculine, or, on the other, as a “dead white male,” we miss what is most important about the man and what his writings have to say to us now.

*This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Madison Library*

Learn about the rich, tragic, and surprising story of four of the world’s Great Cathedrals.  Each is tied to Napoleon, has innovative architecture, and stunning beauty.  “Visit” Moscow’s rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Savior; France’s Basilica-Cathedral of Saint Denis; and the Île de la Cité’s two wonders: Sante-Chapelle and the several-times-almost-destroyed Notre Dame de Paris – first saved by Bonaparte himself and then by a Hunchback.  

*This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Madison Library*

In January of 1692, a strange illness seized control of five young girls living in Salem Village, a contentious and divided town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. When medical professionals couldn’t identify the illness, the town believed the girls had come "under an evil hand."  Events soon spiraled out of control with local divisions and a splintered colonial government feeding the frenzy.  Archivist Mickey DiCamillo unravels the events with archival documents from the period, and program participants will interact with transcripts from the 1692 interrogations of suspected witches. A Q&A session follows the 60-minute presentation.


*This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Madison Library*

We celebrate Thanksgiving every November, but do you really know why? This lecture will answer all of your Thanksgiving questions including: Who really were the pilgrims? Why did they sail on the Mayflower? What’s the real story about the origins of Thanksgiving? What does Henry VIII ( yes, the one with all the wives) have to do with any of this? And also, WHAT’S WITH THE TURKEY? Don’t miss the ship! Come to this lecture!

*This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Madison Library*