Yo-Yos Are Big in Windsor

Mexican yoyos from Wikipedia

June 19, 2015, post on Facebook:

Windsor Public Library will be having a bi-weekly Yo-Yo Club for ALL ages (kids, teens AND adults!). Yo-Yo Club will meet every other Wednesday at 2:30pm starting Wed. June 24th. New yo-yo students receive a card with a trick list on it. Learn cool tricks and earn proficiencies of Novice, Expert, Master, Pro, and Grand Master! Classes are taught by our director, who also happens to be a former international yo-yo performer! Bring your own yo-yo, or let us help you purchase a yo-yo for use. Yo-yos are also available to borrow for classes and to check out through the library. Many thanks to All For KIDZ, producers of The NED Show, for their donation of yo-yos, holsters, and extra string!

There’s a lesson here: if the director has a special talent, the library can plan a whole program around it! Christine Porter offered the first workshop in February and 20 people came. Another good turnout happened in April– so the Library launched an official club as soon as school closed for the summer.

Wandering Wilbur, fundraising mascot

Windsor Library staff brainstormed fundraising ideas, and came up with a traveling piggy bank. Wandering Wilbur has his own Facebook page, carrier, and pleasant personality. He raises funds for books and children’s programs, whatever his hosts want to donate. According to an article in the Claremont NH, Eagle Times, donations have ranged from 10 cents to $350.

Wilbur has been to New York, Philadelphia and Lake Sunapee– obviously this guy gets around!

Hackerspace!

Windsor Public Library took a note from Linda Braun’s Technology Workshop in Barre last summer, and planned an informal hacker/maker space for kids. Sarah Tufts wanted “a place where a kid could feel free to break something apart and not worry about getting in trouble.” She put the word out and collected fans, toasters, a paper shredder, a lamp, a hot plate, an alarm clock, and old zip drives. The library decided not to accept cell phones, computers, with concerns about what the batteries might contain.

Sarah:

We used basic tools (screw drivers – all sizes, wrenches, pliers, wire cutters, flashlights, and ONE hammer). The hammer didn’t really get used until the very end, and probably shouldn’t have been used at all.

I thought about safety glasses, but only had 2 so didn’t bother. They might have come in handy when one kid took a hammer to the glass door of the toaster oven while trying to pry off the handle. The shattering sound surprised everyone; thank goodness for safety glass:)

There were 2 rules:

1. No plugging anything in EVER before, during, or after the program. Recommended: cut electrical cords cut off before the program.

2. All screws, nuts, bolts, etc. get put on a long strip of tape as soon as they are removed from the appliance. This was in case kids wanted to try to reassemble the piece, but mostly so that all those tiny pieces didn’t get lost – so easily camouflaged in our rug.

The Library had David Macaulay’s “The Way Things Work” on hand and also googled images when the book didn’t answer questions.

Total success and an expanded audience including dads.