A Youth Talent Show in the works this month is just of many ways the Bradford Area Public Library has engaged with the community during the pandemic.
With the library closed to the public for months this year, library staff have been busy planning activities to keep residents’ spirits up and encourage them to read and create.
Judy Carr, youth services assistant, explained they decided to hold a virtual talent show where children from any age group can present their skills in a video that is three minutes or less.
They will find different people to judge the contest.
“We didn’t want to be partial to anybody,” she noted.
Carr said anyone wanting to participate can submit to marketing@bradfordlibrary.org
“We just thought it would be a good way to get the community connected,” said Carr. “We want to be able to open the doors for our families, show those talents, make them feel wonderful to do something different.”
She said participants will have next week to prepare and make their videos. Registration will be from July 13-20, and submissions are due by July 31. The library will award gift certificates to the winners. Winners will be selected in the following age brackets: Preschool, first through third grade, fourth through sixth grade, and seventh through 12th grade.
Janelle Nolan, adult programming and marketing coordinator, will set the videos up for the library’s Facebook page. Carr believes videos will be released on Facebook as they are submitted.
“We’re really very excited to see where this goes,” as there are “so many talented children and families,” said Carr.
Participants can show off any skills they wish, which can include music, poetry, comedy and more. She even suggested that families can work together to do a skit or play.
One local woman, Jennifer Taylor, mother of Kierstin and Preston, praised the library for its efforts to engage the community.
“Our library is so great all of the time but I really feel they are going above and beyond with all the challenges they are facing this year,” Taylor told The Era. “Our kids are lucky to have the Bradford Public Library!”
She described on Facebook how her family participates in the summer reading program every year, and talked about how the library has adapted the program to follow pandemic guidelines.
“I am not a crafty person so the fact that they put this all together is so appreciated by my kids and myself!” Taylor wrote.
The library has been holding its Story Time program online by giving participants a code they can use to join in. Story Time activities include a story and music. They’ve included local musician Jim Ronan with his Juice Box Heroes program.
Carr, meanwhile, puts together kits with materials for an art project to be distributed to Story Time participants. Sometimes she includes extra projects to keep children occupied later, such as an animal project or a Father’s Day project.
She does outreach, too, taking activity kits and snacks to Growing With Grace daycare at Grace Lutheran Church, the Bradford YMCA daycare and ABC Grow With Me Childcare.
“I’m very grateful that the families in the community are taking part and keeping the kids involved with our library. It’s a wonderful gift. It makes us all so happy.”
Over a 1,000 children have joined in the fun so far, she said.
Carr said the crafts are not just cut-and-paste crafts or just drawing. Some are more involved. For instance, in a couple of weeks participants will be making dragons that they can hang in their bedrooms. Another example is a fairy kit with pipe cleaners during a lesson about fairy tales and fables.
Also happening online is the library’s art program, which Carr said Nolan and Debbie Deane, youth services librarian, have been putting together.
Local artist Julie Mader has been putting together art classes that people can participate in online, which is possible through the AIE partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
A Mader program for adults uses “a magical jungle adult coloring book” to teach lessons about colors, contrast and blending techniques.
Another project is a “Quaranzine” — an online magazine showcasing all the creative things Bradfordians have been doing. The first issue can be viewed from the library’s Facebook page or website, www.bradfordlibrary.org.
The library has been posting to Facebook frequently with art projects, information about the summer reading programs and even a “Libraries Rock” acoustic show by local musicians.
“We definitely will be surprising people with a lot more things” — both children and adults, Carr said.
