While activities for students are available year-round, Centralia Timberland Library has a full lineup of summer of activities that begin when school lets out, says Linda Conroy, Senior Youth Services Librarian.
“We have youth programming for everyone from babies all the way up through high school,” she says.
The library’s summer activities are both educational and fun. One of the capstone events is the annual Twin Cities Pet Show at George Washington Park, whose categories include the stuffed-animal category and the best-dressed category—to see who can most closely dress like their pet.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Linda says. “We’ve had turkeys, miniature ponies, snakes, goldfish, hermit crabs, and many more, in addition to dogs and cats.”
The show’s judges include the director of the Director of the Lewis County Animal Shelter and the Chehalis animal-control officer, Linda says.
Other activities on tap this year include Fun in the Sun, which is a combination track-and-field day, carnival, obstacle course and book walk (instead of a cakewalk!) and features many other games and programs for youths of all ages, including Mister Twister, the man who twists balloons into animals and other shapes.
“We cross our fingers for sun, but we have the event either way,” Linda says. “For teens this year, we’re also putting on a new program called NerdiCon.”
NerdiCon is about celebrating all things geeky and nerdy, she says. The event will include video games, a cosplay fashion show, tasty pizza, and the chance to teens to talk about the things they’re excited about.
“We encourage people to dress up,” Linda says, noting that another draw this summer will be Reptile Man, who brings a seven-foot-long albino boa constrictor, a huge turtle, an alligator, and many other reptiles for kids to see and learn about.
“That program is one of our biggest draws,” she adds.
“In the summer we find that it’s best to have programs for general ages around midday,” Linda says. “We try to have our activities for teens a little bit later in the afternoon, and programs for kids earlier in the morning in case naptimes are involved.”
“There’s no perfect time that fits the needs of all families,” she says, “so we try to offer a variety of times.”
Thanks to the administration, the board, and the Friends of the Centralia Timberland Library, the library is committed to programs for youth, Linda says. In addition to her, two other employees — Youth Services Librarian Alexis Herdy and Youth Services Associate Marla Gise — are employed in youth services at the library, specializing in envisioning, implementing, and evaluating programs for youth.
Other programs this summer include STEAMtastic, which happens every Friday in July, and offers different math, science and creative activities, as well as the opportunity for kids to explore such concepts as magnetization in a hands-on way.
“We find that children and their families are some of the most enthusiastic users of the library,” Linda says.
“The reason our youth programs are on par with our adult services is because we have so many parents and children using the library,” she says, noting that programming for adults includes reading groups and discussion groups, as well as lectures and other programs.
“In the time that I’ve been at the library, we’ve consistently added more and more programs,” Linda says.
A major goal of the programming is to get students into the library, so that they can discover for themselves all the resources that the library offers.
“We have three weekly story times,” she says, “a Mother-Goose play group for babies up through age six, toddler times — these go on all the time. This past spring we added sensory-friendly story times for children on the autism spectrum or with other special needs, tailored to their needs. We also have regular bilingual story times, which will soon be monthly. We have programs for grade school kids throughout the year, including Gross Science,” she says, laughing.
Classes are taught by outside experts, as well as the library staff themselves. Because the Timberland library system has 27 libraries, it’s easy to share skills, ideas and sometimes staff time among the libraries, she says.
“Together, we can serve more people,” Linda says. “And, we’re always looking for summer volunteers.”
Linda grew up with a love of books. She spent time in the library every week. “I have great memories of learning to read with picture books, then chapter books,” she says. “I loved the literature of childhood.”
That experience serves her well, she says.
“We can tell when kids are engaged,” she says. “We find out what their interests are, and target their interests. One of the best rewards is when they come back and say, that book was great, I want another one like that.”
Discover the full summer lineup of Centralia Timberland Library activities here.
Centralia Timberland Library
110 S. Silver Street in Centralia
www.trl.org
360-736-0183
