On Saturday, July 26 the library will host a snowball social event from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. outside the East Regional Library. The free, end-of-summer event is open to the public.
The event will feature free snowballs from Brooke’s Sno-World sponsored by the Friends of the St. Charles Library. The event will also feature a video game truck from NOLA Games on Wheels, giant games and lots of bubbles.
The St. Charles Parish Public Schools’ Learn with Us Bus, the River Region Master Gardeners, and the Friends of the St. Charles Library are also scheduled to attend with activities and information for attendees.
Cy Jones, youth services assistant for the library, said that while some activities will be inside the library, most of the event will take place outside.
“This is a rain or shine event, so if it does rain, we will move most activities indoors,” she said.
Raven Spizale, the youth services librarian for the library, said the event is open to residents of all ages. There is no registration required, and pets are welcome outside of the library.
“The whole community is invited to come out and enjoy a last hoorah as we say goodbye to summer and hello to the school year,” Spizale said.
Lauren Campo Pitz, the assistant director of the library, said events like the snowball social helps bring the community together to connect with the library staff and each other.
“The library is free for all to visit,” she said. “It’s a place for people from all over the community to gather without worrying about having to spend any money.”
Spizale said she hopes attendees of the event can connect with each other at the library and have fun in a relaxed environment.
“They will also be able to pick up their summer reading prizes and pass a good time,” Spizale said.
As part of its summer reading program, the library set a goal of clocking 2,750,000 reading minutes by July 31. Patrons can sign up for the reading program at the snowball social.
“There is still plenty of time to sign up and start reading,” Pitz said. “Completing the summer reading program means reading for 360 minutes, and that is very doable before July 31. Just think of it as reading for 30 minutes a day for six days.”
As of July 14, there were 2,299 parish residents signed up for the summer reading challenge. Over half of those participants – 1,258 readers – have already completed the challenge. All together participants logged 1,555,827 reading minutes as of July 14.
The library held about 160 programs and outreach events in June and reached almost 4,000 people. Staff has no yet complied data from its July events.
“We’ve seen such an incredible response from our community this summer,” Spizale said. “Our programs have been filled with patrons taking the time to enjoy what we have to offer. Patrons love our reading incentives and even travel to each branch to pick up our collectible brag tags.”
She said the biggest takeaway from the summer program is seeing how much patrons have enjoyed the library’s events, activities and books.
“Whether it’s attending our events and activities, the books they’re checking out to read at home, or the prizes they’ve earned from reading – or all of these things – we see so many smiling faces when people head home from the library,” Spizale said.
She said the library will continue to build on the successes of the last few years of summer reading programs as it looks ahead to next year.
“Even though so many of us have worked in libraries and coordinated many events and programs over years, we are always looking for ways to improve and fine tune what we do to best serve our community and provide high quality services and resources for the residents of St. Charles Parish,” she said.
