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FRENCH CREEK – The James W. Curry Library is starting to offer in-person community programs again with a summer favorite.
Director Judith Williams said the library is inviting the community to a glow stick party June 4 from 8 to 10 p.m.
“This will be our third one,” Williams said. “We planned on having one last year, and then the pandemic hit, so plans were put on hold until just here recently. We decided to go ahead because we’re going to be outdoors, we can social distance and it’s usually families with children.”
Participants will be able to purchase glow sticks at the event, as well as concessions, with all proceeds going toward children’s programming at the library.
“This is one of the things we do to support our children’s programming,” Williams said. “The trust took a pretty big hit the beginning of COVID and the budget has been really tight, but now that we’re able to do some fundraisers again we should see some relief.”
This is the first in-person community event the library has been able to organize since the pandemic started, and Williams said she is looking forward to seeing everyone back at the library.
“We have recently started our family story time on Tuesday evenings — about a month ago now — so we’re beginning to have those programs again, but the glowstick party is really our first venture back into large group activities,” Williams said. “It’s been frustrating to see the need in the community and not be able to answer, but now we’re able to open the space up and have people come back for family story time. The kids are just having a blast with it.”
The library will also offer a summer reading program. Sign-ups started May 25 and programming will run June 8 through August 10.
“We will be doing a hybrid program again this year,” Williams said. “We will have some activities on Tuesday evenings as long as the COVID numbers stay low, but I know a lot of people are still reluctant to do much in groups for one reason or another. They don’t have to come on Tuesday evening, they can drop by the library at a time when it’s less populated if they feel more comfortable.”
The theme for this summer’s reading program is “Tales and Tails.”
“It’s focused on animals this year, and animals in stories, so we’re doing more with the STEM side of that,” Williams said. “We’ll be doing habitats and we’ll have a weekly story trail that will have activities. We’re going to have an incredible animal trail, we’re going to have a safari trail and then we’ll have some readings and activities in the library as well.”
