Adventure often begins at the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library and on Thursday that adventure included goats, ducks, a pony, a pot-bellied pig and a couple of dinosaurs.
To kick off its summer reading program, the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library hosted a day of activities geared toward children, including a scavenger hunt, crafts and Angie Hales Pony Tales and Petting Zoo. Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services was also on hand to present information about foster care.
Special guests throughout the day were a couple of dinosaurs from The Dinosaur Experience, a Louisiana-based entertainment business, that drew lots of laughter from the young guests.
The summer reading program is open to everyone from babies and preschoolers to teens and adults, said Elizabeth Jolly, the library’s program coordinator.
“This year our summer reading program theme is ‘Adventure Begins at Your Library,’” she said, adding what better way to go on an adventure to kick off the reading program than with dinosaurs and a petting zoo.
The reading program is divided into four groups: babies and toddlers, kindergarten through fifth grades, sixth through 12th grades and adults.
Anyone interested in participating should go by the library and register for the program and pick up a time tracking reading log, Jolly said. Each week, they can pick up a ticket with summer reading challenges to earn prizes.
The library hopes to attract adults to the reading program and not just children.
“If kids see adults reading, hopefully it will encourage them to read too,” she said.
Besides the reading program, the library has planned numerous activities during the months of June and July to keep all ages entertained.
Adult activities are planned for Mondays either at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. depending on the week. Painting is planned for Monday followed by macrame, then dance on June 17. June 24 will be a resource fair and bingo adventure for all ages. Adult activities will pick back up on Monday, July 1, with step-by-step painting, followed by sewing, gardening, crocheting and bingo on the next four Mondays. All activities are free to participants.
“On Mondays we are also doing Movie Monday marathons open to all ages. We are showing the Madagascar series in June and the Despicable Me series in July,” Jolly said.
The movies will begin at 2:30 p.m. each Monday and are free and open to all ages.
Babies and toddlers will meet at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays for storytime and a craft; meanwhile, kindergarteners through 12th graders will meet at 3:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Also on Tuesday afternoons at 2 p.m., the library will host an all ages chess club meeting.
“It was a really big hit last year,” Jolly said of the chess club, “So we said let’s try it again.”
On June 14 and July 12, the library will host Reading at the Lake, where library officials will set up at the first playground at the lower level of Bonita Lakes with a story and an activity for all ages beginning at 10 a.m. If it rains, the outing will be moved to the library, Jolly said. On June 28 and July 26, the library will host a story hike at Bonita Lakes, both beginning at 10 a.m.
The library also will host a sewing class on July 8 open to participants ages 13 to adult.
“That will be a class limited in space,” Jolly said. “We actually just purchased eight sewing machines. We tried it out in March, and we had about six classes. We had a really good turnout. So, we were like this seems like something valuable the community could use, learning how to sew.”
Jolly said she hopes residents will discover while checking in with the library on their summer reading progress that the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library offers more than just books, magazines and newspapers for residents.
“There is so much more that the library offers than just books,” she said. “We offer notary services. We have a slew of information databases for genealogy. We offer copies, faxes, computer services. You can use your library card to log in or you can ask for a guest pass. We have DVDs and audiobooks.”
The library also offers members access to information on the Libby app, she said.
“The Libby app is where you can download off of your play store and you use your library card and you sign in,” she added. “You can download ebooks, audiobooks, magazines.”
For more information on the library’s summer reading program and other planned activities, visit the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library at meridianlauderdalecolibrary.com.