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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Events At Perry Memorial Library

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The Perry Memorial Library has a flurry of events planned between Thanksgiving and Christmas, providing lots of interactive activities for the whole family.

Youth Services Director Melody Peters invites patrons to take the long way in to the library and enjoy reading a story along the sidewalk outside and lingering among the lovely Festival of Trees exhibit in the Gallery between the library entrance and McGregor Hall.

The library will be closed Thursday through Sunday, but come Monday, Nov. 27, activities at the library are going to be heating up.

The StoryWalk, Peters explained, is geared toward those preschool-aged children. Families can join in the fun and get in a little exercise while they read a book, panel by panel, along the sidewalk.

“It’s just a fun activity,” Peters said on Tuesday’s The Local Skinny! “This is a good way to build in exercise…and read a story along the way,” Peters said. The StoryWalk will be up for a month for all to enjoy.

On Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 4 p.m., Durham-based StoryUp! Aerial Theater will perform the classic fable of The Lion and the Mouse. “It’s like going to the circus, but then imagine theater,” Peters said, sort of a mini Cirque de Soleil with aerial artists interpreting the story that’s basically about being kind.

The library is launching another story time beginning Thursday, Dec. 7 for elementary-age children, Peters said. She hopes the 3:30 p.m. time slot will be just right to get children engaged before they head off to tackle homework assignments or Lego Club.

These books will be a little longer than those selected for younger children’s shorter attention spans, she said. The theme for December will focus on different holiday traditions. First up is a book titled “Hershel and the Hannukah Goblins.”

She said she plans to incorporate this new story time offering as a way to encourage children of all ages to enjoy being read to.

Consider embracing your inner crafter on Saturday, Dec. 16 when the library opens up for all ages to join in a variety of crafts for the whole family.

Speaking of crafts, the Mother Goose story time slot is giving way in December to make-and-take craft activities for those kiddos birth to 5 years, Peters noted. “We’ll take a break in December and offer…crafts,” she said. And while they may just seem like fun activities, there’s a lot of learning going on. Stringing cereal on a pipe cleaner involves developing that pincer grasp, as well as sorting by colors. “There’s so much learning happening,” Peters said.

Learn about all the services and programs at Perry Memorial Library at www.perrylibrary.org.

 

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Events At Perry Memorial Library

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The “mitten tree” at Perry Memorial Library will be up soon, providing some holiday cheer as a wintertime decoration as well as a resource for those in need of mittens and hats during the cold months ahead.

Last year’s tree was a success, but it was also funded with a “Kindness” grant, said Melody Peters, Youth Services director at the library. “We gave away over 200 items,” she said on Tuesday’s The Local Skinny!

“This is the first year we’ve asked for donations,” Peters added. Patrons are invited to drop of new or even gently used mittens, gloves and hats at any of the desks in the library.

If you’re shopping for yourself, consider grabbing an extra pair to donate, she said.

Peters said she’ll enlist the help of local knitters to whip up a few pairs as well when they’re at the library for their regular club gathering.

And who knows, maybe the newly formed Crochet group will help, too. The group of a dozen or more tweens and teens who are learning how to create with hook and yarn will meet again on Nov. 21 at 4 p.m. as part of the Survival Skills series.

“We have room for extras,” Peters said. “We have room to grow…we can open the doors to the Makerspace…(and we) can spill out into the teen area.” The library provides the crochet hooks and the yarn that the participants can take home to practice with.

Another program for youth is the Life Hacks series. The Nov. 14 program is titled “Fun With Finance,” and Peters said a local bank representative will be on hand to share some practical information that teens should know about money. The program, designed for high school students, begins at 4 p.m.

Not everything can be done with a swipe or a tap on your phone, Peters said, and she wants young people to know about things like rent, mortgages, checking accounts and more.

This program helps get them started on the path to financial literacy by “just getting them to understand the basics,” she said.

Learn more about Perry Memorial Library and its programs and services at https://www.perrylibrary.org/

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Youth Events At Perry Memorial Library

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It was noisy in the library the other day when the youth gathered to learn about electricity – just like Melody Peters had hoped for.

Peters, youth services director for Perry Memorial Library, said the electricity workshop was a big hit – in fact, it’s going to pick back up in January and run monthly through April.

“There’s nothing like seeing a kid’s face light up,” Peters said, when they realize what they’ve just accomplished or created.

Admittedly, it took a little time for the participants to understand some of the characteristics of energy and how energy flows, she said.

“It took a little doing,” she said, and the instructor allowed the youngsters to learn by trial and error.

“I love giving kids hands-on learning experiences,” Peters said. When something didn’t work, they had to problem-solve to make the devices they created work properly.

The electricity program, part of the library’s Life Hack series, continues for middle and high school students on the second Tuesday of the month beginning in January and continuing through April.

The third Tuesday is for Survival Skills, which currently is teaching 14 kids to crochet. The library purchased hooks for the participants to use, and the instructor donated the yarn – that was the easy part. The kids had the more difficult task of actually creating a chain of single crochet loops.

“It was hard at first, tedious,” Peters said. “Once the connection is made, then they’re off,” she said. The next gathering will take place Nov. 21, and Peters said she’ll be interested to see progress that the participants have made on their projects.

Check out www.perrylibrary.org to find out about all the programs and services the library offers.

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Events At Perry Memorial Library

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Perry Memorial Library patrons can check out books, sure, but the library offers a wide range of programs and services, not all of which directly involve reading.

Youth Services Director Melody Peters said, for example, that young people can come on each month on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. to learn how to crochet. Yep. Once someone expressed an interest, Peters and staff got busy figuring out how to make the request a reality.

“Someone who’s been doing this for a very long time is sharing” the skill with others, Peters said on Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny!

There’s a program request bin located just inside the library doors, and Peters said people are filling it with ideas. Want to make a suggestion for a workshop or other idea for programs at the library? Drop a note in the bin, she said.

As Halloween approaches, Peters said she sees an uptick in young people choosing books that have scary or spooky themes. She admits to being more of a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mystery gal herself, but she said she’s ordered some new titles that qualify for the horror genre for those adventurous readers.

Recently, a group of youngsters came in near closing time – already in their pj’s – to check out books (maybe for that evening’s bedtime reading). Peters said one of the children requested a particular title that was not available, but all was not lost. Peters said she helped her find another chapter book that was part of a series, so now maybe this young patron has another set of books to enjoy from the library.v

There’s always something to discover at the library. Visit https://www.perrylibrary.org/ to learn about available programs and services for youth and adults.

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Upcoming Events At Perry Memorial Library

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By all accounts, October is going to be busy at Perry Memorial Library. Youth Services Director Melody Peters has outlined several programs designed for tweens and teens that could “spark” an interest – pun intended.

Peters said a dozen young people are already registered for the Tuesday, Oct. 10 Electricity program. The hour-long program begins at 4 p.m., she said, and participants will get to learn about how electricity works from a Vance-Granville Community College instructor.

It’ll be a fun time, but it also can be a way for young people to learn about careers, she said.

“Now kids see a real connection,” she said, between education and future job opportunities in the electrical field.

There’s no charge for the event, but contact Peters if you haven’t already registered at mpeters@perrylibrary.org.

The following week’s Survival Skills program will introduce youngsters to the world of crochet. Yep, crochet. They have all the materials and plenty of space, so just show up if you want to learn how to magically pull yarn with a crochet hook to create handcrafted items.

The annual Fall Festival will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 24 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

“Last year was such a great time – we had a great turnout,” Peters said. “We’re excited to do it again.”

Children can come in Halloween costumes if they’d like and can enjoy playing traditional carnival games and craft activities.

For a complete listing of all the programs and services at Perry Memorial Library, visit

https://www.perrylibrary.org/

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Upcoming Events At Perry Memorial Library

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Come out to Perry Memorial Library on Tuesday, Sept. 26 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. to experience a celebration of Hispanic Heritage month.

There will be activities in the library, as well as in the gallery shared with McGregor Hall, according to Melody Peters, youth services director at the library.

It’s a chance to learn more about the Hispanic culture and will include dancing, music, face painting and much more.

It’s a chance for the community to come to the library, but sometimes the library gets to go to the community.

Peters said library representatives will be out on Garnett Street on Saturday for the Smart Smart Ducky Derby.

“When we go beyond the doors,” Peters said, “it brings people in the doors.”

She said she had paid a recent visit to the Salvation Army and had a nice story time there. The Boys & Girls Club brought children in throughout the summer to take part in programs offered by the library.

So whether the library staff goes out into the community or individuals from the community visit the library, Peters said it’s all a matter of being visible.

“You have to get out and be visible in the community,” she said. “That brings people into your building.”

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N.C. Rep. Sossamon To Sponsor Sept. 18 Meeting To Learn About Broadband Progress In The Area

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Want to learn more about the state of broadband internet access in your area?

Rep. Frank Sossamon has organized a community forum to share information about what may be in store for the area with regard to broaband internet access.

The meeting will take place on Monday, Sept. 18 at Perry Memorial Library, 205 Breckenridge St. and will begin at 6 p.m.

Staff from the N.C. Department of Information Technology are scheduled to be present to provide residents with the most up-to-date information about this issue.

 

Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Upcoming Events At Perry Memorial Library

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The official first day of autumn is still a few weeks away, but fall programs at Perry Memorial Library are getting started this week.

Youth Services Director Melody Peters said things are shaping up for a wonderful fall at the library – come on in and have some fun!

Mother Goose story time is starting back up after a short end-of-summer break, Children 0-5 are welcome to come hear a few stories, sing a few songs and get some wiggles out, Peters said Tuesday on The Local Skinny!

Before children can read the words on a page, Peters said, they really need to hear the stories read to them.

Children pay attention to the voices as the stories are read aloud, she noted. All the senses are firing in a child’s first two years, so she takes care to choose books that are visually appealing written by diverse authors.

“It’s a fast, full 30 minutes,” Peters said of the weekly story time. “We’re not sitting still for this…we’re goint to have that song and move their bodies,” she said. They “practice” sitting while the stories are being read, but other than that, there’s a good bit of activity.

The story time uses themes and the first one is “On the Farm,” followed by “Apples” and “Fall.”

Story Time is all about “quality, not necessarily quantity,” she said. “You want to leave them wanting more.”

Speaking of more, that’s exactly what teens in grades 6-12 are getting in this season’s Life Hack series, Peters said. To kick things off, there’s STEM gaming fun in the Maker Space in September. From using the popular Wii system to learning about robots, tweens and teens can come together and just get used to coming to the library and using the creative space.

In October, they’ll have a chance to learn about electricity and actually have some hands-on learning by making electric circuits. Peters found a grant to purchase some kits filled with dozens of projects for the teens to learn with.

In November, a local bank representative is going to navigate youth through the ins and outs of personal finance. Although it’s pretty simple to wave your phone in front of a device to pay for something, the time will come when young people will need to be a little more tuned in to paycheck information, bank deposits and checking accounts.

Visit https://www.perrylibrary.org/ to learn about all the programs and services available for children and grownups alike.

 

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Summer Success And Fall Events At Perry Memorial Library

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Libraries are usually associated with books – words on pages. But if you’re Melody Peters, you also gotta look at the numbers.

The number 8 – that’s how many weeks of summer programming is in the books (no pun intended) at Perry Memorial Library. The number 38 – that’s how many programs were held. And 1,500-plus? That’s how many participants took part.

“We were busy,” Peters, Youth Services Director at the library, told WIZS co-host Bill Harris during Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny! “It was a GREAT summer!” she proclaimed.

In addition to all the different programs held at the library, Peters said a lot of new patrons got library cards, and there were other families who returned after a long hiatus, thanks largely to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were groups of day campers who got to visit the library, too, which Peters said was good for the library AND for the youngsters whose parents work and didn’t have the time to bring them to check out books or enjoy the programming.

There’s a lot of planning that goes in to creating a successful summer program, but as the saying goes, it isn’t work if you love what you do.

And that is true for Peters. “I love what I do,” she said. “I love talking to people and working with kids of all ages.”

When she can help a young person find a book that brings a smile to their face, it’s a gift.

“I think it’s the best gift in the world,” she said.

But she’s not resting on her laurels, just taking a slight breather during August before fall programming cranks back up.

Thanks to input from the community, there will be a few adjustments to the fall schedule, along with some additional programs for young people to enjoy.

The Maker Space is opening up for a gaming and robotics club on Thursdays, she noted.

And the popular Lego Club, Life Hacks, Survival Skills and Kids Connect will continue.

“It’s kind of the same model…then things will expand a little bit,” she said.

One add-on comes from a suggestion Peters got on a sticky note, on which a young person wrote “electricity.”

She contacted Vance Granville Community College, got some ideas and then got a grant for all the materials needed to teach the nuts and bolts of electricity to youngsters.

“That’s what I love,” Peters said, of the responsive collaboration to create new programs.

It’s planned for Oct. 10, which coincidentally is a teacher workday.

She’s got the equipment, the contact and the space, she said, to present the program.

Considering the interest from the summer program, getting the kids to participate shouldn’t be too difficult.

Find out about all the services and programs offered at Perry Memorial Library at https://www.perrylibrary.org/.

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TownTalk: Author Michael Bean Will Have Book Signing At Perry Memorial Library

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Local author Michael Bean has a unique insight on the trials that middle schoolers face.  Not only was he once a middle schooler himself, but he also teaches middle school students at Vance Charter School.  That insight has contributed to Bean writing a book simply called “Jazz.”  The book follows the character Mitchell Williams as he navigates the intricacies of middle school at fictional King’s Hollow.

The coming of age story is told through two intersecting yet different timelines, one as a middle schooler and one as a high schooler.  Mitchell has to deal with bullies, preparing for band competition with the school’s jazz group as they raise money for a trip to New York and with meeting a girl.

Bean says the book started off as a story about himself.  “After I started writing it, I realized I was not all that interesting,” Bean said on Tuesday’s TownTalk with Bill Harris.  “That’s when I changed the characters name from Michael to Mitchell and realized I could throw everything at a fictional character,” Bean continued.

The beginnings of the book date back to 2020 and was written in about a year, according to Bean. “I edited it eight times,” Bean added.  The book is self published, and his son designed the cover. The book is available through Walmart and Barnes & Noble.  An e-book is available through Amazon.

To help draw attention to the writer’s efforts, Bean will host a book signing in the Farm Bureau Room at Perry Memorial Library on Breckinridge Street in Henderson on Saturday, August 12th from 11 a.m. to 12 noon.  Bean said he initially ordered 75 books for the signing, but interest has been so good he ordered an additional 100 books for the event.

While this is Bean’s first novel, he has more writing on the horizon he said. “I have two other books I’m working on and a graphic novel,” Bean said.  It’s a slower process Bean said with these projects.  “Jazz” was written during the pandemic, but now Bean is back to teaching, attending Vance Charter athletic events and he and his wife have three children of their own so there isn’t as much time to write as before.

With “Jazz” Bean hopes that not only teenagers but everyone will find something to identify with and see something of themselves in the pages he has written.

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