Strathmore Library a hub for spring programming

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Strathmore Municipal Library has organized a suite of events scheduled to take place over the course of the “Spring Break” and into the beginning of May. 

Currently ongoing, is their Meet a Specialist series, which has invited a variety of professionals to chat with parents of babies and toddlers about a variety of topics. These include a speech pathologist, a public health nurse, a nutritionist and a dentist.

“We have a variety of programs coming up, but we are really focused on literacy-based programs and informational programs that make sense to offer the community, as well as some fun things that tie all that together as well,” said Laura Henderson, public services manager with the library. “All of our early literacy programs are for children and their parents … and what we found is that we were bringing in guest speakers for those programs occasionally … and more parents … in those specific programs were wanting access to that information.”

Henderson said the library elected to alter how their programs were operated in order to allow as many people as possible to be able to participate and have access to the information being offered. 

What initially began with a speech pathologist and dietician has expanded, with more specialists in different fields being asked to present at the library. Each presenting specialist is local to the Strathmore area. 

“Our focus was to bring in local specialists. It is that familiarity, it is very community-oriented and they are sharing the information that directly is important to our community,” said Henderson. “It gives these parents an opportunity to ask questions that are very targeted for our area, and it is a very exciting opportunity for us.”

Designated as its Spring Break programming, the library will be the venue for a writing workshop hosted by local author Christina Hatton-Fearnley, activities celebrating children’s author Mo Willems, a presentation by the Alberta Community Bat Program, and a Lego building program. 

These events will each be taking place respectively during the week of April 22 to 25. Though the original plan was to encourage the community, particularly school-age children on break, to get outside, Henderson described these programs as too good of opportunities to pass up hosting. 

“We were talking to our patrons, we were talking amongst staff, and we all kind of had an odd interest in bats in general. I think it might have been last summer it first started coming up; we were noticing bats around town and started talking about it,” said Henderson. “We realized that there is this Alberta Bat Program and when we contacted them, they said they were happy to come out and do a talk about it. They are bringing some items to look at; we will do a craft; it sounds like it is going to be a really exciting program and just interesting and relevant to our area too.”

Come May 1, the library will be hosting an online safety presentation with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team’s Internet Child Exploitation unit.

The event will discuss the realities of internet child exploitation in Alberta and strategies to navigate these issues. The recommendation is that this event not be attended by children, but is recommended for teen attendance. 

On May 3, the library and Communities in Bloom will be partnering to host their annual Plant and Seed Exchange. Communities in Bloom will be engaging patrons beginning at 10 a.m. that morning, prior to the exchange beginning at 11:30. Anyone who is interested may simply bring in plants and/ or seeds they wish to part with or exchange. 

Henderson described it as an opportunity for gardeners and plant enthusiasts to get to know each other and chat about gardening. 

“There are a lot of gardeners in the community, so we were really excited to start to grow this program after all the years. It has been such a successful program all of these years that it is fun to build off of it,” she said. 

Some of the library’s programs during this period do request registration in order to establish how much material is required for everyone’s participation; however, most are simply able to be dropped in on at any time while they are in operation. More information is available in person and online through the library.