Recap of Recaps: April 17–April 23

Submitted by Joanie Goforth

Here are a few recaps from programs that took place systemwide between April 17–April 23.

Young residents of Bradley Park enjoy
their first FCPL bookmobile experience

Smart Art attendee proudly displays her Earth Day terrarium

Learn About Eid presenters connect how Eid
is practiced around the world

Outreach Bookmobile Stop at Bradley Park Apartments

"On Saturday we were excited to visit a new stop, Bradley Park Apartments located just off Highway 9 behind Chick Fil A. The bookmobile has been visiting its sister community of Brookside Heights for about a year, and because of our relationship with the property manager we were invited to visit Bradley Park. I had passed by this complex many times during school bus drop off and noticed a lot of families waiting to get their children off the bus. Since I had been considering adding this location to our route, I was elated to receive an email request from the property manager. Kandy and I had the pleasure of working with several families on Saturday, two of whom had just moved to the county from California. One of our visitors brought her elderly mom to the bookmobile to get a library card. The daughter is an avid reader and was really looking forward to reading Percival Everett's book James. She was overjoyed to learn that we had a copy of James on the bookmobile.” –contributed by Lorraine Lane

Write Together at Cumming Library

“Both new and familiar faces arrived and hung around for an hour or two, chatting about life, their stories, and the craft. I welcomed everyone in and explained how the program would work to newcomers. Although I had different stations throughout the room, one for individual work and another for collaborative work, to my surprise, everyone immediately sat down at the large collaboration station and stayed there for the entirety of their time in the program. I popped in periodically to make sure no one had any questions or concerns. Each time I did, they were always in the middle of good conversations! One conversation included what everyone's favorite part about writing is. They all seemed to collectively agree that it is fantasizing about writing but not actually writing, to which I agree. One writer remarked that this was her first time here - she came just to meet new writers. One writer seemed to be researching sewage systems for his book. One writer told me that someone asked about the Writers' Night of Adventure and the writing groups. Six of the writers stayed to the very end.” –hosted by Brianna Schantz

Learn About Eid! at Sharon Forks Library

"Today’s Eid program presented by Ms. Asra and Ms. Noor started with storytime followed by a presentation and crafts. The books shared during the Storytime session were about Ramadan around the world. Children dressed in traditional outfits paraded around the room with flags as a representation of the festival from different parts of the world. Attendees learned about the Eid festival and fasting during the period of Ramadan, which is the time for self-reflection to bring out the best inner qualities to make our lives better. The presenter shared about the various special dishes that are made during the celebration and how children receive gifts during the festival. To add to the festivities there was a beautiful display of artifacts and wall hangings. The children made greeting cards and lanterns and had fun getting their names written in Arabic, and there was a henna station where gorgeous henna designs were drawn on hands. The dessert station had amazing baklava, moon cookies from different parts of the world, "Karachi cookies" from Hyderabad, India, Medjool dates, and fig cookies. The presenters did a good job of explaining Ramadan and connecting with the audience. It was nice to see some of our regular patrons enjoying the festivities.” –hosted by Sarah Reyholds

Smart Art at Hampton Park Library

"Tonight was our last Smart Art program of the semester. Since yesterday was Earth Day, I decided that we'd make mason jar terrariums at the request of Gracie, our regular attendee. Gracie and her grownup learned about the history of Earth Day, things we can do at home to help save the planet, and some very interesting statistics (Did you know that one reusable bag saves 600 plastic bags in its lifetime?). After that, it was time to make our terrariums! We sculpted creatures out of clay, then filled mason jars with sand, pebbles and moss. Gracie made an adorable creature called Benny and took her time creating the perfect landscape in her jar, while her grownup made a dragon. We all had a great time chatting while crafting.” –hosted by Kayla Bolton

Adult MakerDay at Post Road Library

“Ten crafters came to MakerDay today to make handmade greeting cards. I set out lots of materials from our crafting cabinets - scrapbook paper, cardstock, ribbon, sequins, rhinestones, markers, hole punchers in a variety of shapes and sizes, twine, and washi tape. I also printed out a few different phrases (happy birthday, congratulations, etc) on cardstock in a variety of fonts. Attendees made a variety of cards and the process took longer than I expected, but many of the designs were quite involved. One crafter said that she hasn’t handmade anything for her mother since she was a little girl and we talked about how much her 91-year-old mother was going to love this handmade card. One crafter said that she thinks she has found her new passion and said she has lots of scrapbook paper at home but that she didn't know what to make with it. A patron who had only recently started coming to the library and had no idea we had programs like this came in to investigate. When I told her that each of our branches does a regular craft program, she was amazed and said she definitely plans to come back for May’s MakerDay program.” –hosted by Melissa Reed