Library hosts programming for Golden Hills reading week
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
John Watson Photo
The Strathmore Municipal Library offered a variety of programs for kids and families, while Golden Hills students were off for their reading week.
“We were running programs all week. (Wednesday’s) program was a makerspace, which … we ended up with about 55 kits that we made full of all sorts of different craft items and an assortment of things,” said Laura Henderson, library public services coordinator. “We put them out and kids could come in, grab a package and go to a table and there would be glue and scissors and colouring materials and they could just make something.”
Particularly for Wednesday’s program, the library team was not expecting the attendance levels observed, due to the adverse weather conditions. According to Henderson, the team had created roughly 35 kits for kids to use, and were making more on the fly as more people dropped in.
Other activities hosted at the library included a putt and play on Tuesday – which ran for the first time in four years, yoga for kids on Thursday, a fun film on Friday, and a board game day on Saturday.
“We always try to run programs when the kids are off school … the putt and play was also very well attended. I printed 50 scorecards and I think there were five left at the end of the day. I would say we easily had 80 people show up for that program,” said Henderson. “We had nine little putting greens that we set up through the library, we decorated and families could come and just play a little round of mini golf in the library.”
Larger games were also hosted in the program room during the mini putt and play as the library ran out of golf clubs to accommodate everyone who dropped in.
Though the library regularly hosts programming for reading week every year, the team makes an effort to offer new activities for each occasion.
“We do expect high attendance when the schools are closed,” she said. “People depend on our programs in a way … but I have to say we were surprised at how well attended our programs were with the way the weather was.”