Community members watch the first movie in the "Popcorn, Not Politics! Movie Marathon" at the Shepherdstown Public Library on Monday. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — A “Popcorn, Not Politics! Movie Marathon” was held in the Shepherdstown Public Library (SPL) on Monday, to help give community members an escape from their concerns over the General Election.

The idea for the movie marathon came from the mind of SPL Director Christy Hagerty.

“It was created to be a distraction from the election, the day before it, because I think everybody’s stressed about it in one way or another,” Hagerty said. “I thought it would be nice to have some feel-good community time, instead of just contentious time. We want to be seen as a place for everyone to come together.

“Sometime last week, I heard somebody say to Lance, ‘I’ll be here Monday, because this is a place where I can feel comfortable and don’t have to worry so much about the election,'” Hagerty said, referring to Adult Services Librarian Lance Dom. “It was a last-minute decision, but I wanted to try and provide an event for everyone who was feeling similarly to that patron.”

Hagerty said that the library has a license to show movies and has held a number of movie screening events in the past, although none of them have been movie marathons. For this event, Hagerty selected three, vastly different movies, with only one element in common.

“They’re not all light-hearted. But they are all feel-good movies,” Hagerty said. “They all leave you feeling positive about the world.”

The movie marathon kicked off with a showing of the 2016 biographical sports drama, “Queen of Katwe,” in the morning. It was followed in the afternoon with showings of the 1940 romantic comedy, “The Philadelphia Story,” and the 2014 comedy, “Paddington.”

“I looked through what movies we had here physically, at the library, and planned out the day based on that,” Hagerty said. “From there, my goal was to pick movies that could provide distraction from the stress.”

For Shepherdstown resident Mark Kohut, the movie marathon accomplished exactly what it had intended to do.

“I didn’t think of politics and the election while it was on!” Kohut said, after the first film’s credits began to roll.

One of the library’s patrons from Kearneysville agreed wholeheartedly with Kohut.

“I think this was a great idea!” Diane said. “I like all of the movies they’re planning to show, but I’m a morning bird, so naturally I came to the first one.”

SPL Board of Trustees President Nancy Stewart said that, along with attending the movie marathon, she planned to use one other tactic to destress from her concerns over the upcoming election.

“We may go for a nice drive to one of our surrounding towns and go to some place like Orr’s Farm Market, just to escape,” Stewart said. “It remains, in spite of the drought, so gorgeous outside. Nature can provide a wonderful relief from stress.”