The sun is shining outside and the sound of children can be heard playing outside. This can only mean summer is finally here.
For some, this is a break from the rest of the year, but at the library this is our busy season and we gear up with lots of fun activities and events for all ages.
This is my first summer designing a summer reading program for teens, and I’m excited about all of the things happening. So far this summer we hosted an after hours kick-off, which brought in 100 teens to the library after we closed and transformed into a laser tag arena.
We also had video games, a craft area and gaga ball setup. I’m still not quite sure what gaga ball is, but kids stand in a circle, kick a ball around and have fun. We also partnered with Wave pizza so the kids could have some amazing fresh pizza to snack on while on their adventures.
People are also reading…
We also had a T-shirt design contest. For our second event, we took a field trip to T-shirt Engineers and they learned about screen printing and graphic design. We took the designs submitted at the After Hours event and combined them to make the design they were able to put on a shirt and take home. It was fun to get out in the community and learn about something new.
Our next event is planned for 2 p.m. Monday, June, 19. It is going to be a spray painting art class. We are bringing in Josh Arias, who works with the non-profit group Impact Art. This group, based out of Kearney, has the goal of promoting and creating positive public art while mentoring young adults and adults. They have done a lot of work painting murals in Kearney, and we are happy to bring them here to work with the teens. Teens will be learning about spray painting techniques as art and will have something to take home with them.
To round out the events in June, we will have Anime Club meet where they will be making keychains in the chibi style. Do you remember using shrinky dinks? That’s what they will be doing to make these keychains. It’s a material you draw on that acts kind of like paper, but when you heat them up in an oven they shrink and become small hard plastic with whatever you drew on it still there.
The fun continues in July with a laser cutting program, another T-shirt making program, a video game tournament and the Grand Finale end of summer party. For more information on dates and times for these events, visit out website at http://gilibrary.org
We have more than just our weekly programs happening. As a library, we also like to encourage reading! We use a program called Beanstack that allows you to track your reading minutes. I like to use it all year round because it’s fun to see all of the books I read at the end of the year and how long it took me to read them. If you register for the summer reading program through the library, you also get to earn prizes! We have rewards for all ages, including adults!
This summer our theme is “All Together Now” and I have tailored the teen things to the Beatles. Teens this summer will be rewarded for their reading with a cool water bottle, and fun stickers to put on it that resemble famous Beatles album covers. There is even a fun updated version of the Sergeant Pepper’s cover hanging in the teen area!
Hope to see you at the library sometime this summer!
Erica Rogers serves as the technology and teen librarian for the Grand Island Public Library. Email her at ericar@gilibrary.org.