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04/20/2016 08:00 AMOn the fitting fateful date of Friday, the 13th (of May), join Polly Fitz and the Blackstone Trustees in solving a macabre interactive mystery, Murder at Blackstone Abbey. The night of artful appetizers, “deadly drinks” (aka beer and wine) and “suspect” interviews will transport participants to Victorian times within the marble walls of the Blackstone Library and help raise funds for needed improvements to ensure the library’s place in Branford’s future.
Now serving her third term with the Blackstone Board of Trustees, Polly counts herself among a committed, diverse group dedicated to its mission. The trustees have oversight of the library’s endowment and its building. The library receives 85 percent funding from the town. The rest is raised through fundraising events, appeals, grants, and contributions from donors, including the Blackstone’s largest support group, non-profit Friends of the Blackstone Library.
Murder at Blackstone Abbey, a trustee fundraising event, returns following last year’s very successful Murder at the Blackstone inaugural event, which sold out. Polly’s excited to be event chair for the May 13 “murder,” especially after last year’s tremendous response. Advance ticket purchases are recommended and available now through the library’s website.
“It was a new fundraiser last year and what was really interesting to me was that most of the people who came really got into the game,” says Polly. “It was fun to watch people going around the building and just grilling these suspects about where they were and what they were doing.”
The screamingly suspicious “suspects” (local actors) will be dressed in their Victorian best as the mystery is unveiled in the rotunda at the evening’s start. Appetizers, beer, and wine will be in plentiful supply for sleuthing guests, who are free to grill suspects in settings laced with Victorian props. The questions and clue gathering will help catch the killer of a mysterious woman murdered in their midst.
“This building is just such a great setting,” says Polly, who’s working with her committee to come up with ways to mask modern library layers, such as computers. “It’s been fun thinking up how we can get the feel of the Victorian era. Terry Twigg, who is on the committee, came up with a really creative kind of staging, with lots of props.”
The purpose of the fundraiser is to help the trustees continue on the path toward upgrades and renovations needed to move the Blackstone into the future. The trustees have already invested $76,000 toward a proposed library expansion project, and anticipate raising and contributing about $1.5 million toward the estimated $4.8 million project. The trustees are seeking $50,000 from the Town of Branford in the 2016-’17 town budget to assist with the cost of testing the library’s conceptual design plans with a schematic design.
The Blackstone last received major infrastructure upgrades in the 1990s. The new plans call for moving the Children’s Library from the top floor of the rotunda to the building’s ground floor, where a new Teen Library space and more computer resource space would also be added. The top floor would be converted to two new public meeting rooms. The building’s rear entrance would become the main entrance with the addition of a 2,500 square foot glassed main entry designed to coordinate with the building’s 19th century style.
“I think people are more aware the library does need to change in order to do things,” says Polly. “The support of the community is just phenomenal.”
A Pennsylvania native, Polly’s efforts to support her adopted hometown started by joining Friends of the Blackstone Library and the Branford Garden Club quite soon after she retired from her career as a college-level educator and administrator in 1996. Polly’s career included her work in designing the dietetics program for the new UConn School of Allied Health and becoming its department chair. She went on to be named the school’s academic dean for 12 years, then joined the team that built a series of programs that became UConn’s Center on Aging.
On her way to being invited to join the Blackstone Board of Trustees, Polly first served for about six years as president of the Friends in the mid-2000s. She stepped in to finish a vacated term, and then served two more terms. She says she was very comfortable putting her teamwork and program-building ethic to work as Friends president, and very grateful for the support of the many members who assisted her in achieving her goals.
“My claim to fame is building up the Book Sale, which is a big source of income for the Friend’s fundraising for the library. When I came in, it netted $28,000 [per sale]. What I tried to do when I came on was build the fundraising. That’s when we added the dealer’s night and we came up with ‘books in a bag’ for Sunday. Today, it’s up to about $50,000 net, and we are so lucky to continue to have wonderful people involved, including the organization of” Mary and Matt Hally.
Polly also helped former library director Kathy Rieger with her wish to get a lecture series started. Polly turned to Fred Biamonte to connect the dots between Rieger’s request and his established talks featuring artists. Biamonte, also a former library trustee, passed away in January.
“Fred was wonderful,” says Polly. “I asked him to join with Terry Twigg, who’s just such a creative mind, and [me] to focus on a lecture series on art, music, and books. I take no credit for that except in responding to Kathy’s request. Fred took it and ran with it, and now it’s a very well-known offering here.”
Polly and her husband, Alan (who up until about two years ago was president of BCTV), both see the value in contributing to their community by getting involved with local organizations. With her third and final term as a trustee now underway, Polly especially values her ability to give back by working with the talented board.
“The trustees have a whole range of talent among all kinds of different people,” says Polly. “To me, as a lifelong educator, the Blackstone is a center of learning for all ages, and we’re all really committed to the project, and that’s why we’re working to raise the money.”
Tickets are on sale now for Murder at Blackstone Abbey, an interactive murder mystery set in the Victorian era at the Blackstone Library, 758 Main Street, on Friday, May 13 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $50 per person and include beer, wine, and appetizers. All event proceeds benefit the James Blackstone Memorial Library. To purchase tickets, visit www.blackstonelibrary.org.