Addie
May Hirschen, a storyteller from Indianapolis, entertained young and old under
a tent on the lawn of Willard library on July 28th, the final day of
“Beyond the Beanstalk”. Wearing a long
blue- green dress along with a golden crown, she told interesting stories with
expression, and used riddles as well as puppets to captivate her audience.
With temperatures over 100 degrees this summer,
reading a good book in air conditioning has been a great alternative to playing
outside. Aidan Huffman, a participant in
Willard Library’s “Beyond the Beanstalk” summer reading program said, “I read a
lot and reading’s good for you. Me and
my sister had a competition and we both got tied.”
Rhonda
Mort, Willard Children’s Librarian, said that there was good participation in
their summer reading program. Children
participating in the “Beyond the Beanstalk” reading program were given a chance
for a prize for every ten hours of reading.
On July 28 at the Grand Fabled Costume Ball, the end of the
summer reading program celebration, names were drawn from a jar. The age appropriate prizes included T-Shirt,
E- Monopoly, Horse ride, and Rock climbing.
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| Fancy Nancy came to the Grand Fabled Costume Ball |
Kids
were encouraged to attend dressed as their favorite character. There were well-known characters such as the
adventurous Indiana Jones and a career-oriented yet dainty tooth fairy, as well
as Fancy Nancy, who wore a multi-colored tutu and sparkly pink shoes. For those of you not familiar, Fancy Nancy is
a little girl character created by author Jane O’Connor who loves everything
fancy: clothes, accessories,
decorations, furniture, and even fancy words.
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| Indiana Jones and the Tooth Fairy |
When the storytelling finished, Mother Goose
(Sara Murray) made an appearance. She
came with her Altrusa friends, who sponsored an essay and art contest, and
later cooled everyone down by serving ice cream.
Sue Huck explained that Altrusa of Evansville
is part of an international organization that supports literacy. “Altrusa historically has been, and still
is, a community service organization with a focus on literacy and other local
needs”.
The subject
of the essay contest was “Who Made a Difference in Evansville’s History?” in
honor of Evansville’s 200th anniversary. The contestants chose a wide variety of
historical figures including Samuel McCutchan, Albert Wesselman, Christian
Decker, Hugh McGary, and John Reitz.
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| Altrusans Sara Murray and Nafeeza (Birdie) Harrison with the fist place essay contest winner. |
In their
essays, some contestants proudly stated their relationship to these historic
Evansville figures. The first place
entry was by Jim McMurray who
was awarded a Kindle, followed by Jack Buschkill, Chris Zimmerman, Melissa Bubb, and Tyler Zimmerman who
won gift cards to Barnes & Noble bookstore.
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| Essay Contest Winners! |
The art contest theme was “Draw your favorite place in Evansville”. Aubrie Madigan won first prize in the drawing
contest and a basket of art supplies, and Nicole Hamilton placed second
receiving a gift card from Dick Blicks.
Birdie Harrison mentioned a future Altrusa
activity at Caze Elementary’s new multicultural library. “Fifty multicultural books were donated to
help bring awareness to the different cultures in our community.” Members will be actively involved in the new
Pre-K class this school year by establishing a book reading schedule and giving
each pre- school child a free book.
Sue Huck, Rhonda Mort, and Sara Murray
