An image of the Hillsdale Community Library March 2017. Courtesy | Facebook
The Hillsdale Community Library hosted Trick-or-Treat on Oct. 31 for kids to participate in Halloween-themed activities.
The event featured sweet treats, games, pumpkin decorating, a prize wheel, and a photo booth. Trick-or-Treat is one of many events the library offers.
“We generally try to do a similar thing,” said Rebeka Dobski, the director of the library. “We always have cider and donuts. We have candy at multiple different stations. It’s not like they’re trick-or-treating throughout the library, but they had different stations around the kid’s area.”
The library, which is open Monday through Saturday, hosts special events like Trick-or-Treat throughout the year, as well as many different weekly programs.
“Some of the programs were definitely in place before I came and started working here,” Dobski said. “But normally, when we have kick-started a new program, it’s just because we had been thinking, ‘What else could we do for the kids?’”
The library recently introduced Homeschool Meetup on Oct. 6, which meets every Monday at 10 a.m. Homeschool parents run the group, but use the library’s space. It acts as a place for homeschooled kids to socialize and do schoolwork together and for parents to discuss curriculum and have a support group, according to Dobski.
“Our new homeschool program has been something we’ve wanted to form for a while,” Dobski said. “A big thing about libraries is learning about your community and finding the key demographics that make up the people you serve. That being said, we know Hillsdale has a large home school community, with many different iterations.”
Dobski said a local doula recently expressed interest in starting a group for new mothers to meet and support one another. The library will be looking to start this group in coming months, according to Dobski.
“There’s a lot of connection amongst the people who attend the events as well, and I don’t know that I’ve ever really seen that before at my previous library job,” Dobski said.
Other after-school activities for kids include Lego Club, which meets every Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., and After School Crafting, which meets at 3:45 p.m. on the first and third Monday of every month.
Assistant Professor in Medieval History Charles Yost said he takes his kids, 9-year-old William and 7-year-old Ralph, to Lego Club. Ralph enjoys Lego Club because it has a good selection of Legos, including “rare” pieces they don’t have at home, according to Yost.
“My oldest son William, who is 9 years old, said that he likes Lego Club because you have the opportunity to meet new people who love Legos and to share your creations with them, as well as to see what they come up with,” Yost said in an email. “He also really likes the fact that when you are done building a Lego creation, it is displayed in a glass display case with the creator’s name.”
Dobski said another of her favorite programs the library offers is the Little Bookworms storytime. Heidi, the programming coordinator, comes up with themed crafts and storytimes every week, according to Dobski.
Zoe Tracey, a mother who brings her children to the library, said they started coming for Little Bookworms, which meets every Thursday at 10:30 a.m., when her son was 4 years old.
“They do a great job,” Tracey said. “Miss Heidi is an excellent reader, and it was always well planned. He would do a story, songs, a craft, and a snack. And so it was a really great way to build community as a new stay-at-home mom, and just socializing for the kids before preschool.”
