NEWBURYPORT — Looking to burn some energy without suffering through the heat, around a dozen kids showed off their creative sides Thursday at the Newburyport Public Library a small city of forts to play in.
“Today is Fort Day and it’s a lot of fun. It’s fun to see what the kids come up with. They’re very creative and having a fun time,” children’s librarian Sienna Willis said.
Three main forts were set up in the library program room, with a giant rainbow tarp covering a table and multiple chairs to form the largest one.
Across the room, multiple pieces of blue, foldable board were quickly constructed into an ever-evolving fort, which had a green tunnel that children eagerly crawled through into the adjoining third fort, a yellow and red tent.
Parents joined in helping rearrange the blue fort, with orders of what pieces were needed sometimes shouted at them over the sounds of laughter.
“We need a square,” one of the kids cried out just before the fort toppled in on top of him, much to his own amusement.
Among those in attendance was Newburyport resident Jonathan Shine, who came with his 5-year-old daughter, Maeve, and 4-year-old son, Thomas, explaining they come nearly every day.
“The library has pretty good events on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the summer, and the reading program. So the kids come over, especially on hot days when we want to get them out of the house but not sweat and burn,” Jonathan Shine said.
He said he was pleasantly surprised with what the fort day turned out to be.
“We thought everything is usually paper crafts, so I thought it was going to be build a paper fort, not this. This is great because they’re burning energy in the library’s air-conditioned rooms on a hot day,” Jonathan Shine said.
Asked how he feels about the library as a whole he said it is amazing, noting that his daughter had learned to read in the last year with the help of visiting the library.
“My son’s not quite ready to read yet but gets very excited for books, and these kinds of programs keep them excited to come to the library,” Jonathan Shine said.
Poking her head out from one of the forts, Maeve Shine said she really enjoyed the different activities in the library.
“I love it a lot,” Maeve Shine said.
Willis said the library has activities every Thursday throughout the summer.
“With the kids in school during the school year, we tend to focus on the younger kids. In the summer, we’re free to run a bunch of programs for more of the school-age kids so they have some way to come together if they’re not in camp or if it’s too hot outside,” Willis said.
Folks looking for larger events in the evenings should check out their schedule of Wednesday programming, Willis added.
“Those are kind of the bigger draw items. We had our animal show two weeks ago. We had a puppet show last night. We’re going to have the Poop Museum in a couple weeks. And then we’ll end with Toe Jam Puppet Band,” Willis said.