Langdon Library Society receives grant to offer new hobby program

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Langdon Library Society has been awarded a Community Foundation grant from Canada Post, in the amount of $954 to put towards a try-it hobby program.

Cori Nicholls, president of the Langdon Library Society, explained the grant is a community grant available to any non-profit organization to apply for. 

This particular grant is also the first that the Langdon Library has applied for with the intent to enhance their local programming. 

“It has been rather exciting to suddenly get a grant as a brand-new library. (We) decided to use the opportunity to ask for funds so that we could develop hobby kits similar to what Chestermere Library’s ‘Test Drive a Hobby’ program is,” said Nicholls. “Whether it be crochet, or knitting, or bird watching, or astronomy, or rock tumbling – learning to play the ukulele, those kinds of kits that will come with like a book or a video and all the supplies you’d need.”

For example, a ukelele kit would come with the instrument, a tuner, and resources for beginning to play for the month that the user is in possession of the kit. 

Langdon Library, upon the launch of its “Hobby Explorer” program will have kits for folks to be introduced to knitting, crochet, bird watching, rock tumbling, ukelele, watercolour painting, and anime drawing.

“The way that we figured in the budgeting for the grant application was that this would allow us to not only set up, do the initial setup of the kits, but it would allow us to provide any of the supplies that might be used up for an entire year,” said Nicholls. “As I have mentioned it to people, they did not even realize the program was available in Chestermere, for the most part. To hear that we are going to be offering it here, there has been some general excitement at the thought of being able to (engage with it).”

Hobby Explorer kits will be free and available for folks to check out and borrow who have a membership with the library. 

According to Nicholls, the Langdon Library Society is aiming to have all of the kits ready and available for folks to start checking out as early as mid-November. If not by then, they will be available by Dec. 1 at the latest. 

“Picking up hobbies is expensive … this sort of takes that fear factor out of trying a new hobby because you do not have to invest in it or dispose of the materials if you hate it,” said Nicholls. 

The cheque presentation for the grant took place Oct. 18 at a Canada Post office in Chestermere. A total of approximately $1.2 million in grants has been awarded this year by the Canada Post Foundation to 84 organizations across Canada.