Meet Clara Stevenson

I recently had the pleasure of meeting a local children’s book author, Clara Stevenson. Clara was born here in Woodstown back in the 1920’s. Reading has always been one of her greatest joys and from an early age, she knew she wanted to be a writer.

In 1945, Clara lived and worked in Philadelphia and was enrolled in an evening journalism class at the University of Pennsylvania. World War II had just ended and the class was overflowing with servicemen who were attending under the GI Bill. The professor was a veteran of the First World War and so the wars became the topic of discussion. Clara was young and in a hurry to get on with her life, so she dropped out and started her family. Many years passed and she found herself retired and widowed and back in her beloved hometown of Woodstown. She thought of her dream of long ago and asked herself, “If not now, when?” and then she began to write.

Clara actually “discovered” me from reading a press release about http://www.discoversalemcounty.com/. She contacted me through my company website , Websketching, and asked me to design a website to promote her books – 13 in all at the time of this publication. I was delighted to learn that one of her books, “What Do You See When You Look at a Tree?” used Salem County as the setting and mentions the Salem Oak, the Leni-Lenape Indian history , and other places of interest in Salem County.


As part of my research before designing her website, I went to visit Clara. Over a glass of iced tea, we talked about her books and about her cat, Casey, the star of “The Story of KC-The Cat Who Lived in a Shelter.” She gave me several of her books to take with me to read later and I was on my way.

I found Clara’s books to be beautifully illustrated and very good reading. I loved reading about Salem County in “What Do You See When You Look at a Tree?” and the story of how KC became Casey in “The Story of KC-The Cat Who Lived in a Shelter” will make your heart a little bigger.

Clara Stevenson will be signing her book “What Do You See When You Look at a Tree?” at the Woodstown-Pilesgrove Library on Saturday, July 19th from 10am-12pm. For more information, please visit her website, http://www.clarastevenson.com/

Christine DeGraff is a partner at www.Websketching.com and co-developer of www.DiscoverSalemCounty.com, a grassroots website designed to help promote Salem County to both tourists and residents alike.

Oakwood Summer Theatre

Just a few weeks ago, I went to see “The Diary of Anne Frank” performed by the Oakwood Summer Theatre at Salem Community College. This was the first of three plays that OST will be producing this summer.

Having been to only a few plays in my lifetime, I do not pretend to be an expert by any means – but I CAN tell you that I was mesmerized by the story and I thought the actors did a great job. Probably most telling of all though – and I am not embarrassed to say it – when the play was over, I left the theater with a lump in my throat and tears slowly rolling down my face.

I have always been saddened thinking about how people suffered during the holocaust, and this play made me want to learn more about it – it made me want to tell people about it – and it made me want to help prevent it from ever happening again. In fact, I was so inspired to do something that I went down to Washington the very next week to visit the Holocaust Museum – unfortunately, they had already run out of passes for the day. My husband and I plan to return in the fall and I will try to go see it then.

Photo: Exterior of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
viewed from Raoul Wallenberg Place (15th St. SW.)

In the meantime, I have been anxiously awaiting the OST’s next play – “The Trial of Goldilocks” – that runs from July 16-18. I am sure this will be a different experience than the first I had, but I hope that it will be an experience none-the-less! I will let you know whether Goldilocks is guilty or innocent of the charge of breaking and entering the Bears’ cottage – or you can just go see for yourself! Finally, OST will conclude their 29th season with musical “Bye Bye Birdie,” a satire that tells the story of a rock and roll singer who is about to be inducted into the army.

By the way, I cannot believe that we have such a great theater company right here in Salem County and that it has been “A Salem County Tradition” since 1980 and I am just now discovering it! That just goes to show that you can live somewhere for years and not really know it – I am learning now that there are things to do right in my own backyard. For more information about OST, visit their website, http://www.oakwoodsummertheatre.com/.

Christine DeGraff is a partner at http://www.websketching.com/ and the co-developer of http://www.discoversalemcounty.com/, a grassroots website designed to help promote Salem County to both tourists and residents alike.