Oneida Public Library’s Summer Reading Program will get underway in early July with varied programs and events expressing this year’s theme of “Build a Better World,” including workshops in theater and robotics requiring registration and public events like the Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre’s latest production.
Starting off Monday morning, July 10, at 10:00 a.m., Youth Services Coordinator Megan Gillander will hold a weekly series of four programs for elementary-school students that aims through play and group activities to “build a better world through kindness.”
For one, they will be assembling “You Matter Bags” on July 10 to be handed out to individuals in need of a boost in life. For another, on July 17, they will work together to construct a little free library, a small but decorative book depository set out in the community at which anyone can take out a book and return that book or replace it with another. Little free libraries, with community support, have become quite popular in big cities as well as small.
The “Build a Better World” program will be held on Mondays at 10 a.m., July 10, 17, 24 and 31. Parents or guardians will need to register children at the OPL Circulation Desk or by phone.
Also starting Monday, July 10, is the OPL Children’s Summer Theater workshop “Acting with Your Voice,” under the direction of Tom Lemery. Held Monday through Friday, July 10-14, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., the one-week workshop will offer children in grades 3 through 8 instruction in voice expression, poise, group collaboration and acting.
By the time of the workshop performance, Friday evening, July 14, at 5:00 p.m., the students will be “voice actors” performing for family and friends the newest radio sensation: The Magic Hat: The OPL Kids Radio Show. The show designed by Lemery will have something for every young actor to do, from reading classic children’s stories to doing comic skits to singing commercials to producing weird sound effects.
The voice-acting workshop is limited to 18 children. Registration beforehand is required.
To build early child literacy, Megan Gillander brings back the Little Red Wagon Fridays at 10:00 a.m., July 7-28. Gillander will lead preschoolers out of doors, weather permitting, for storytelling, songs and games. No registration is required.
For teens in grades 9 through 12, the OPL’s SRP offers the Teen Coffee House on Thursdays, July 6-27, at 11:00 a.m. Using online videos from Technology, Education and Design (TED) Talks, Gillander will guide discussions on current teen topics involving online games, social media and “fake news.” Registration is not required.
The first SRP special event is an interactive program called “Samantha, an American Girl Suffragette,” utilizing American Girl dolls and a specially constructed doll house. The program was created by Teresa Wood, owner of History Houses in Rochester, N.Y., as part of the OPL’s 2017 Centennial Celebration of Women’s Suffrage in New York State.
Set for Wednesday, July 19, at 3:00 p.m. in the library, the program will follow Samantha and other American Girl and Boy dolls to a Suffragette’s meeting in Central Park in New York City in the early 20th century. There, Samantha becomes impressed by the speakers agitating for a woman’s right to vote.
Wood invites the children to come with their own dolls to share the excitement. The program is free and open to the public and is made possible by an Action Grant from Humanities New York.
For SRP’s second special event on Monday, July 31, at 11:00 a.m., the Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre will perform its latest production “Huff and Puff: A Pig Tale.” It’s a brand new adaptation of the classic fable The Three Little Pigs, complete with laughs and slapstick. As the three pigs set out to build their houses, they meet several fairy-tale characters such as Rapunzel and Goldilocks, and everyone has an opinion about “building the better house.”
The Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre performance at the OPL is free and open to children and adults of any age, and it is made possible by the support of the Friends of the Oneida Public Library.
The Lego Robotics Workshop scheduled for August 7-11, Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. is an intensive introduction for middle-school students to the potential of robotics to aid humankind and improve the quality of life globally. In the workshop, up to 12 participants will build electronically controlled robots with Legos and power packs under the supervision of Ralph Kohler, Jr., and Tandy Paugh from the U.S. Air Force Laboratory in Rome.
The Lego Robotics Workshop, which is now in its fifth year at the OPL, is an edition of the First Lego League, a nationwide program sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Laboratory to promote the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by young people.
Registration for the Robotics Workshop is required.
The OPL’s SRP reaches its climax with the celestial event of the year on the evening of August 21. The OPL invites community members of all ages to witness the solar eclipse that will darken a goodly part of North America at a Picnic under the Eclipse outdoors on the grounds of the new Oneida Library site on Main Street next to the Madison County Historical Society.
The solar eclipse on August 21 starts at 5:18 p.m. in Oneida (latitude 43.1206º N and longitude 75.601º W) and reaches its “maximum obscuration” (67.11 percent) at 6:38 p.m. Beforehand, starting around 4:00 p.m., the community is invited to enjoy a picnic, thanks to the participation of local businesses, and to ooh and aah at the elliptical juggling of the Gravitational Bull duo, Dave and Kyle Fultz from Tonawanda. Plus, children can get into the spirit of the event with space-themed face painting done by Francesca Nishimoto.
For the main event, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has donated to the OPL a NASA@My Library Eclipse Kit, which comes with hundreds of eclipse-viewing glasses that will allow spectators to view the eclipse safely. (Note: If the day of the eclipse is cloud covered, the OPL will host NASA’s live streaming of the event at 220 Broad St.)
To register children for SRP programs or for more information, stop by the Oneida Library, 220 Broad St., or call (315) 363-3050.