A Small Wall, Two Languages, No Referee
A community board at Richford Library has become an unplanned bilingual forum. Staff member Colette Aubin-Roy is watching, not intervening.
RICHFORD, Vermont — The cork board near Richford Library's front entrance filled up sometime in February. A painted drywall panel pressed into service beside it is nearly full too. On Sunday evening, staff member Colette Aubin-Roy identified a stretch of wall by the periodicals shelf as a candidate for a third surface — though she has not committed yet.
She wants to watch the week first.
What she is watching, in part: a cluster of bilingual call-and-response notes that has been quietly growing on its own. A question in French. An answer in English, two pins over. Then two more additions since Sunday morning — strangers talking to strangers, in the language that comes naturally, trusting someone will meet them there.
Aubin-Roy said she sees no reason to intervene. Richford is a small town, and the board is a small wall.