Above: Morinville Community Library Summer Student Ryenn Marczak shows some of the crafts available during next week’s Summerween program. – Stephen Dafoe Photo
by Stephen Dafoe
The Morinville Community Library is extending its summer program with a special one-week “Summerween” celebration. This new addition offers patrons of all ages a chance to enjoy spooky crafts, games, and activities, led by summer student Ryenn Marczak, who is eager to share her love for Halloween with the community.
Regular Summer Reading Program Was A Success
Morinville Community Library Program Coordinator Jessica Sheppard said the regular Summer Reading Program, which wraps up on Sunday, Aug. 11, was successful.
“This year’s summer reading program has gone incredibly well! Our stats are definitely in line with last year’s, and we are so thankful that our wonderful patrons have been enjoying themselves this summer with what we’ve had to offer,” Sheppard said. “We decided to add adult and teen crafts this year as a test run to see if community members would be interested in incorporating that into later programs as well, and it’s been great to see the turnout for that. Everyone has been super enthusiastic, and participation has been amazing. The kids really enjoyed the Croc Charm portion of the program the most.
Sheppard is also pleased with the reading portion of the program. “We are thrilled that so many patrons have been reading so many books for the summer,” Sheppard said. “That’s ultimately our goal with Summer Reading—to get people to read books more and enjoy reading in general.”
Summerween is here
With the regular program concluding and fall just around the corner, summer student Ryenn Marczak is ready to take patrons on a spooky summer adventure. The special one-week summer reading program add-on runs from Monday, Aug. 12 to Friday, Aug. 16.
“We decided this year that we wanted our wonderful summer student, Ryenn, to dip her toes into the water of planning a program for herself,” Sheppard explained. “Since Ryenn is our resident horror movie enthusiast, she decided she wanted to put a spin on the regular program and bring Halloween to the library early.”
Marczak got the idea for the program extension from a trend on TikTok— Summerween, a term that combines Halloween themes and the summer season.
“I’m a big Halloween fan, so it’s going to be Halloween in the summer,” Marczak said. “We have a bunch of crafts. We have in-person crafts, and then we have take-home crafts. We have board games, we are going to have a movie showing, and we’re going to have Halloween Jeopardy.”
Marczak said Jeopardy would be an in-person event at the Library with two separate time slots on Thursday for groups of 12, one from 11 to 12:30 p.m. and one from 2 to 2:30 p.m. Halloween-themed trivia questions will appear on the big screen, and participants will hit the button to answer them. Both Jeopardy sessions require registration.
Tuesday will feature a showing of the film Hocus Pocus from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., which also requires registration.
Like the space-themed regular Summer Reading Program, Summerween is an all-ages program with children and teen/adult elements.
“I wanted it to be all ages. I think if you like Halloween, you like doing crafts, it’s very open-ended,” Marczak said, adding there will be easy crafts for younger people and a little bit more difficult crafts for the older people.
Monday features a spiderweb craft and board games from 10 a.m. until 7:30 p.m., and on Wednesday, the library will have take-home crafts available. Friday is a drop-in colouring day.
For more information, visit MorinvilleLibrary.ca.
