News
Older News Stories
On Tuesday, November 12, 6:30 p.m. Central, we met Laura Amy Schlitz!
Laura is the author of numerous award-winning books for children, including The Hired Girl, winner of a Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and a National Jewish Book Award; Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, illustrated by Robert Byrd, winner of the Newbery Medal; Splendors and Glooms, a Newbery Honor book and New York Times bestseller; and A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama, the recipient of the inaugural Cybils Award for Middle Grade Fiction. She lives in Baltimore, where she is currently lower-school librarian at the Park School. We “met” Laura when she decided to buy herself birthday treats: new copies of her beloved Betsy-Tacy books that weren’t, as she says, “falling apart at the binding, stained with butter from buttered toast, etc.” We were delighted to learn that several readers have noted that her book The Hired Girl REEKS of Betsy-Tacy!
Rush Week 2024
Our BTS membership drive was a huge success! Between September 15 and 30, 245 memberships were purchased, bringing us to 880 members – a 20% increase! Many thanks to everyone who participated.
Open Hours During the Week
Our Shop at Tacy’s House (333 Center Street) is now open to the public Monday–Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. Stop by! Site Manager Kaitlin Hohenstein looks forward to seeing you.
Tacy’s Upstairs Is Finally Done
The work that began last November (replacing the leaky roof) and continued all the way into July 2024 (dealing with soaking-wet insulation, a cracked and collapsing ceiling, lead paint on the chipped and worn floor, and many walls in need of repair) is finally completed, and we can start moving back upstairs! Which means: Tacy's Parlor (which has housed all our “stuff" for months and months) will once again be part of our tours, probably by the end of next week!
Again, we thank our wonderful Interim Site Manager Tanya Lee, who kept the Shop open, coordinated MANY private tours, and mailed incentives to donation drive donors in the midst of near-total chaos. (During a meeting with new Site Manager Kaitlin yesterday, Tanya quipped, “C'mon! Make her handle a donation drive too!")
Tacy's upstairs looks so beautiful now! Many thanks to Trevor and Mike of Mankato's Above and Beyond Painting, who got us to this lovely place.
Tacy's second floor houses our office and workroom and is usually off-limits to visitors . . . but we really wanted to show all our donors and friends where their money went. Please enjoy this video, filmed by Kaitlin and set to music by BTS VP Michelle May.
A New Executive Director and Site Manager!
The BTS is thrilled to announce that Jennifer Davis-Kay is our new Executive Director and Kaitlin Hohenstein is our new Site Manager!
Jen brings a great skill set of organizational leadership, creativity, and passion for the Betsy-Tacy books. She will work remotely from her home in Arlington, Massachusetts, with four visits to Mankato each calendar year. We are excited to see Jen bloom in this new role and are looking forward to having her in Mankato more often. She can be reached at Jennifer <at> betsy-tacysociety.org.
Kaitlin (who also goes by Kat) is a freelance graphic designer (see below) who brings a variety of key skills to the BTS as both an employee and a volunteer for many local organizations. We are excited to see how she grows in this role and makes it her own. Kaitlin will work on-site at the Betsy-Tacy Houses to oversee all on-the-ground operations, including fulfilling Shop orders, responding to information requests, managing the needed maintenance and repair of the Houses, and coordinating volunteer schedules. She can be reached at sitemanager <at> betsy-tacysociety.org
We also want to acknowledge our wonderful Tanya Lee, who stepped up during extremely challenging circumstances and ably steered our ship in the interim. We are so grateful for her calm and kind presence and her willingness to tackle whatever was needed. BTS operations are in much better shape now than they were just a few months ago, and she has been a vital part of the team getting us to this place.
Donation Drive 2024 Was a Huge Success
Many thanks to everyone who donated to our annual donation drive. With your help, we raised more than $38,000!!!
Thank you. We are grateful beyond words for your support!
Betsy-Tacy Convention – October 2025
The stellar team of volunteer coordinators – Michelle Giorlando, Shelley Harris, Elizabeth (Lizz) Lund, and Andrea Scobie – have announced the date of the next Betsy-Tacy Convention: October 10–12, 2025, in Mankato. For the latest Convention news, follow the Betsy-Tacy Convention Facebook page.
FYI: Conventions have not been planned and organized by the BTS Board since 2002. Outside-the-organization volunteer combos have overseen all subsequent Conventions.
We Celebrated Maud’s Birthday!
To kick off the reopening of the Betsy-Tacy Houses for public tours in May, the BTS hosted a birthday party for our beloved author on April 27, 1–4 p.m. The many fun activities included craft projects, story hour, old-fashioned games, and photo opportunities! Our Shop was open for browsing and buying, and we provided some yummy goodies for our guests.
Donation Drive 2024!
Many thanks to everyone who donated to our annual donation drive. With your help, we raised more than $37,000!!!
We will honor any donations received by April 30 (as in, those monies will count toward our total, and those donors will receive the incentives for donations at particular levels).
Thank you. We are grateful beyond words for your support!
💚 💰 💚 💰 💚 💰 💚 💰 💚 💰
From April 8 to April 25, the BTS aimed to raise $33K to repair the upstairs ceiling and floor in Tacy's House and to replenish our savings. It’s more than we asked for last year in a shorter time frame, but we were hopeful.
We offered some very nice incentives for various donation levels:
All donors received one of our charming virtual “I Donated!” stickers, which they can use on their own social media pages. Donors are also acknowledged on our website.
Anyone who donated $25 or more received a lovely PDF of one of Maud’s short stories, “The Episodes of Epsie”! (Betsy wrote this during her London stay in Great World and sold it to Ainslee’s magazine.)
Anyone who donated $50 or more received “Epsie” PLUS a secret link to an original YouTube video, “Emily’s Slough”!
Anyone who donated $100 or more received “Epsie”! the video! PLUS an elegantly formatted PDF of “An Adventure on Puget Sound,” the actual essay Maude-with-an-e Hart wrote in high school!
Anyone who donated $200 or more received “Epsie”! the video! “Puget Sound”! PLUS two gorgeously colored prints of specially selected Lois Lenski and Vera Neville illustrations, ready for framing!
Anyone who donated $500 or more received “Epsie”! the video! “Puget Sound”! the prints! PLUS a Mystery Box filled with carefully chosen items from our BTS Shop!
Anyone who donated $1,000 received “Epsie”! the video! “Puget Sound”! the prints! the Mystery Box! PLUS their own engraved paver in the walkway at Betsy’s House!
#BetsyTacy2024
A Betsy-Tacy Radio Shout-Out!
On the public radio program 1A, singer-songwriter Aoife O'Donovan tells listeners that she’s now reading the Betsy-Tacy books to her daughter:
And, you know, often my daughter's like, Oh, I wish I lived in the olden days. [Kids] could just run around, and they . . . could go out and do all these adventures, and they never had to go home. And kids obviously had a much longer leash back then, but then we talk about, you know—all their mommies are at home. They didn't go to college. They didn't have jobs. The kids . . . you know, the medicine was totally different. They often died of these illnesses that now are totally preventable. So, she's so aware of—there were things that were great about the olden days, and there are things that are so much better [today].
👉🏻 Listen to the whole interview here. The Betsy-Tacy mention is at 00:14:30.
Many thanks to BTS members Janet Anderson and Mary Markland for bringing this to our attention!
2023 Annual Report
The BTS Board prides itself on being good stewards of your donations and being transparent in how we use our funds. You can read our Annual Report here. We had a very good year!
Monthly Book Discussions Are Now Two-Part
There is always so much to talk about! By popular demand, our monthly 90-minute book talks will carry over to a second month, beginning with Heaven to Betsy. Please join us for Part Two of our Zoom discussion of this delightful book on Sunday, March 17, starting at 6 p.m. Deep Valley time. (And please don’t worry about missing Part One – you’ll be able to catch right up.) We hope to see you there!
Maud and Delos Archives
The collection of Maud Hart Lovelace and Delos Wheeler Lovelace memorabilia (biographical and genealogical data, writings, correspondence, photographs, diaries, and other papers) housed at Minnesota Historical Society is now available online! You can read more and access the collection here.
We Welcomed Special Guest Heather
Vogel Frederick to Our December
Writers Lounge
Victorian Christmas
You can be part of this lovely holiday event, even from afar! If you donate to the BTS in November and December, we'll write your name on a Christmas ornament that we'll hang on the tree at Tacy's House – and we'll email you a photo.
Please let us know what name you'd like us to put on your ornament. (Feel free to have some fun with this – it can be your own name, the name of a loved one, or the name of a favorite fictional character, such as "Tony," "Mrs. Joe Willard," or "A Perfectly Awful Girl"!)
Donations of any amount are deeply appreciated. Thank you for your support!
—————————————
On December 2 and 9, 1–4 p.m., we hosted one of our favorite annual events: Victorian Christmas at the Betsy-Tacy Houses! Visitors strolled through each home, enjoying the beautiful true-to-the-period holiday decorations.
In addition, visitors:
Got their picture taken with Betsy, Tacy, and Tib from 1 to 3
Heard The Night Before Christmas read aloud at 1:30 and 2:30
Helped decorate Betsy’s Christmas tree by making button strings and paper garlands, or simply placing some lovely old-fashioned ornaments
Enjoyed some heart-stirring holiday music from our visiting violinist
Did some holiday shopping in our Shop at Tacy’s House (so many fun new items!)
Colored and cut out Betsy, Tacy, and Tib paper dolls, upstairs in Betsy’s bedroom
Munched on delicious fresh-baked gingersnaps and chocolate chip cookies
Monthly Book Discussion Resume
We’re again discussing the Betsy-Tacy and Deep Valley books as a group, this time on the third Sunday of each month (6–7:30 p.m. Deep Valley time), via Zoom. These discussions have proved to be inspiring, insightful, often hilarious – and a perfectly grand way to spend an evening in the company of kindred spirits. Host Jen provides discussion questions for the group to ponder in advance of the gathering, so you have time to collect your thoughts (and muster your wits, if needed!).
For example, here are some Betsy-Tacy questions we recently discussed:
How does Maud build her world and establish a sense of place?
What seeds of their later characters do we see in each girl in this book?
What ideas do you get about life in the late 1800s in Minnesota? What are some everyday things we see in this book that will change by the end of the series?
Why do Betsy and Tacy think they won’t like Tib? What are the signs that Tib will become a solid third in their trio?
How are Mrs. Ray, Mrs. Kelly, and Mrs. Muller parenting styles different? What do you like about each?
We’re looking forward to another wonderful year of great good talk. Please join us! You can register for all BTS virtual events here.
November Is Give to the Max Month in Minnesota
We're excited to participate in this annual Minnesota fundraiser and “celebration of generosity" to benefit the state's nonprofits. If you’d like to support the BTS with an end-of-year donation, you can do so here. Donations of any size help us further our mission of promoting and preserving Maud Hart Lovelace’s legacy and her work. Thank you!
We Were on KEYC News!
In August we partnered with the Blue Earth County Library Summer Learning Program to host dozens of young visitors at the Betsy-Tacy Houses. You can view the coverage here.
A New Deep Valley Mural
In August 2022, Advisory Council member Michelle May put in motion a Betsy-Tacy mural on a building in Mankato (on the garage wall owned by Deep Valley Properties on Main Street, just east of the intersection with Broad Street). With funding from the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council, the mural of Lois Lenski's Deep Valley – painted by CAAB (Collaborative Artists at Bethany) – is now completed!
Thank you to Bethany Lutheran College, JJJaspersen Studios, and everyone else who contributed. It looks truly wonderful and will be a beautiful part of our community for years to come.
In addition, thank you to KEYC News Now for this great story and to The Free Press of Mankato MN for a marvelous article.
Finally, our hugest, warmest thanks to the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council, who provided a grant for this project with funds appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature from its general fund. We are so grateful that such things exist for the arts; they make the world a better place.
We Were in the New York Times!
Felicia Nimue Ackerman responded to a recent NYT interview with Judy Blume, suggesting that Ms. Blume should join the Betsy-Tacy Society. (We couldn’t agree more!) Felicia Nimue, a relatively new BTS member, has been an enthusiastic participant at the monthly book discussions, and we were thrilled to have her extol them in print.
Never underestimate the power of the press: We picked up a dozen new members that very day!
Spring 2023 Donation Drive
On March 25, we kicked off our annual spring donation drive with the goal of raising $24.5K by April 25, Maud Hart Lovelace’s birthday. With your help, we not only met but exceeded our goal, raising $26,939!
For a complete list of donors, click here. Every donors’ name is also recorded on a pretty banner hanging in Betsy’s House!
Though we will happily accept donations throughout the year, we plan to do a donation drive every spring from now on. We learned a lot during this first effort and will continue to tweak our model. We also pledge to be responsible financial stewards and transparent in our use of these contributions. (Information on how the BTS uses the funds entrusted to us can be found in our Annual Reports.)
An Evening with Cab, Carney, Winona, and Tacy’s Grandchildren
Meet the Deep Valley Grandchildren! (held on February 11) was a glorious success! More than 80 people purchased tickets for this Zoom event, helping us raise $1,725 for the BTS.
If you weren’t able to attend, we have good news for you: The event was recorded, and a link to the video is available for purchase in our Shop!
Note: This is a private YouTube video, and viewing it requires a YouTube account. If you don't have a YouTube account, you can set one up here.
New Membership Rates
Please note that the cost of most BTS memberships has gone up by $5 – the first time we’ve changed membership rates since 2016. We are hopeful that the added revenue from this increase will further our goal of continuing the robust schedule of tours, programming, and newsletters we’ve established over the past few years. We’ve also slightly changed the age range of the YA membership, which is now for young people ages 13–19; Adult membership now starts at age 20.
More information about our financial status and budget is available in our Annual Report for 2022. If you have any questions about the behind-the-scenes workings of the BTS, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We Were a Library’s Featured Nonprofit!
Board member Jennifer Davis-Kay lives in Arlington, Massachusetts, and she arranged to have the Betsy-Tacy Society be “Nonprofit of the Month” for December 2022. This involved gathering all the BT books in the library system for checkout, creating a “vertical display,” and making over 100 bookmarks to give away – which were gone in less than a week! If your library offers a similar opportunity, perhaps you too could spotlight the BTS. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like more guidance! And click here for a PDF of the bookmarks Jen designed to entice new readers (she cut out the rectangles, glued them onto pretty backing, colored the girls’ hair, and attached a ribbon. They looked great!) – feel free to make some yourself to give away or keep for your own collection.
Photo by Michelle Isebrand Photography
