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Library keeps kids engaged over March break

Activities throughout the week included crafts, a "drive-in" movie, and a library-wide Nerf gun battle.
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Ember Kuntsman

The Stettler Public Library was full of activities for children of all ages last week, from crafts to movies to an all-out capture the flag battle with Nerf guns. This was all pat of the library’s effort to provide a safe and educational space for children to be over March break, explained program coordinator Elaine Hoekstra.

“What we’ve been trying this year is to give kids the option of a place to be,” Hoekstra said. “Their parents are working so sometimes they don’t have an activity or a place to go to.”

The events held throughout the week and over the weekend were not necessarily the types of events that kids were used to seeing at a library.

“It’s not your typical old-fashioned library where you walk through the door and it’s totally quiet,” Hoekstra explained.

On Thursday afternoon, March 30, the library hosted a “drive-in movie” where kids built cars out of cardboard boxes before a screening of the film “The Wildlife,” which tells the story of Robinson Crusoe from the perspective of the animals.

About 20 children along with parents and volunteers took part in the crafting activity in the afternoon, while 36 people attended the movie screening.

On Friday night, March 31, kids with Nerf guns descended onto the library after hours for Nerf wars.

The event was so popular last time that the library required parents to pre-register their children for Friday’s event to ensure that enough spaces were available.

The activities were open to children of all ages, with most kids attending between the ages of four and 12.

“With most of the activities, it’s what you make of it,” Hoekstra said. “So you can make it as complicated or as simple as you want, which allows for a varying degree of ages.”

Other activities throughout the week included Slime and Play Dough Balls on Saturday, April 1, where kids made stress balls out of play dough, slime and balloons, as well as the ongoing peeps diorama contest, where children worked on creating diorama scenes using peeps candies and a cardboard box.

The peeps diorama contest concludes on Saturday, April 15, when the final judging will take place.