DPL Teens

Are you bored?

How bored?

Yeah, that’s what I thought. 

You should come to the Teen Volunteer Council meeting on Tuesday night at the Fairmount St. Library.  It starts at 5:30, so call a friend and make plans now.  I guarantee you will have a good time.  Guarantee it.  How can I guarantee such a thing?  Well, for starters we’re not going to play RockPaperScissors.

But, we are going to play NinjaPirateGorilla. 

Join us!

And if you’re trying to talk your parents into letting you attend tell them this:  The Library’s Teen Volunteer Council is composed of students in grades six through twelve, who help support the Library through fund-raising, programming, and special events. Participation on the Teen Volunteer Council encourages young adults to become involved in planning library activities of interest to them and to inspire an interest in reading for all area youth.  Through involvement with the Council, you will gain valuable experiences that will be useful to you now and in the future.  Plus, being a member of the Davenport Public Library’s Teen Volunteer Council looks great on resumes and college applications.

And I don’t wanna forget to mention this tidbit…We also play video games after the casual council meeting!  Uh-huh.

-Christie

September is just around the corner and that means our regular teen programs will be starting back up again.  Yay!  The line up for this year is as follows:

1st Tuesday of the month–Anime Club

2nd Tuesday of the month–TVC (Teen Volunteer Council & Gaming)

3rd Tuesday of the month–Ultimate Card Gaming (Magic/YuGiOh/…)

4th Tuesday of the month–Teen Tech Lab

EVERY Wednesday–Get Your Game On (free play video gaming) 

Anime Club starts this Tuesday, September 1st, at the Fairmount St. library from 5:30-7:30.  Don’t miss the first meeting and your chance to help plan the club’s activities for the season.  Do we need a logo?  Will you draw it?  Should we have officers?  Or just go with the flow?  How about another chopsticks/M&Ms race and ramen noodle eating contest?  (yes please)

Plus, we have big announcements concerning this year’s Anime Fest which will be held at the Figge Art Museum in October.  Art contest anyone?  Do we have cosplayers in the house?  Stay tuned to tomorrow’s post for all the juicy deets.

-Christie

At today’s Bix Porch party, 8 teen volunteers spent 3 about hours in the sunshine selling hot dogs and cold drinks to the jazz loving audience.  Their hard work certainly paid off as they were able to raise a record breaking $455.54!  That’s over $100 more than last year’s total.  Amazing job teen volunteers…WAHOO! 

The money raised from today’s event will be used by the Teen Volunteer Council to support various aspects of teen programming.  We can’t wait to see how they’ll choose to spend their earnings. 

By the way, the Teen Volunteer Council meetings will start back up in September.  They’re held on the second Tuesday of the month, at 5:30, at the Fairmount St. Library.  Any teenager can join, so stay tuned to the blog for more details as the TVC season approaches.

A ginormous THANKS to today’s volunteers and their most excellent work!

-Christie

I Get Knocked Down… – For more funny movies, click here

This vid has nothing to do with anything. But it made us laugh. And cringe. Love the bulls. Oh yeah, tomorrow night: Teen Volunteer Council & Gaming 5:30 @ Fairmount. It will be the last meetin’ of the season for TVC. And we may or may not be, but most definitely will be, making edible sculptures. But you probably won’t want to eat them…but you probably will anyway…funs.

-Christie

It’s been kind of awhile since we posted a featured player, but we’re gonna give it another go.  First up this time:  Bailey.  Bailey rocks!  She always participates in lots of programs at the library and even won an award at the Manga drawing contest/Anime Fest we had at the Figge Art Museum.  I also saw her make a few appearances last summer as Showtime Pal in Junior Theater’s weekly performances at the Fairmount St. Library.  So, let’s get to know a bit more about Bailey, shall we?

Fave book:  “Anything manga that isn’t inappropriate (Oh, the irony), and Twilight series, and also Hunger Games, too.”

Random facts about you:  *Laughs* “I’m always random. I have a happy dance when I eat, and I learned how to answer the phone in  Japanese the other day.  Favorite colors are purple and black.  I want to start my own webshow called  ‘According to Roxas.’  As in Roxas from Kingdom Hearts II.  I cosplay a lot.”

How much is a lot?:  “Umm, whenever I feel like it, I guess.”

What do you like best about the library?:  “Everything.  Dude, it’s amazing.”

What do you want to be when you grow up?:  “Manga artist…hopefully that turns into anime.  If that fails, then an artist or writer.”

Where do you most want to travel to?:  “London or Japan.”

Most favorite videogames to play?:  “Kingdom Hearts and Soul Calibur IV.  Also, DDR and Singstar.  I forgot to mention those.”

Favorite animal cracker to munch on?:  “I don’t know what kind I just ate.  I think it was this buffalo looking thing.”

Was it good?:  “Yes.  Immensely.”

Edward…:  “What?”

Edward…:  “Yes!!! XD” *drools* “Sorry…”

And on that note…here’s a pic of Bailey at the Twilight Party we held last November.  It shows her with the Twilight Soundtrack she won for being the howling contest winner!  That’s right, she won the howling contest.  Jacob would be so proud. BAILEY:  “But I like EDWARD!”

Tonight the Teen Volunteer Council will meet at the Fairmount St. Library at 5:30.  All are welcome to join us for an evening full of laughs.  The TVC meetings are brief and casual.  If you think you might enjoy planning some of the teen programs at the library, have suggestions for our circulation collection, or would like to help out with other volunteer opportunities throughout the year, come on over to the Teen Volunteer Council meeting.  We need your help!  Also, after the meetings we typically play games for awhile.  

At one of the last TVC meetings the teens were asked one question, “If you could be a superhero, what would your name be?”  The answers we got were:

Dynamic Destroyer, Captain Polka-Dot, Goth Girl, Mini Mush, Awesome Man, and Chuck Norris.

-Christie

Things were getting just a tiny bit crowded in the Young Adult section at Fairmount, so we decided to move things around and freshen up the place.  To help with the shifting we enlisted two brand new teen volunteers, siblings Anthony and Bethany.  We reeeealllly appreciate all the input they provided.  Reeeeallllly.  They did a great job!  If you don’t count all the dusting we had to endure, it was kinda fun shifting the collection, rearranging shelves, and creating new displays. 

It all started when Bethany came in to the library one day to inquire about being a teen volunteer.  After sharing my makeover plan with her she offered up her time and we agreed to take on the project the next Saturday morning.  Well, that Friday she called and left a message saying she had the flu and wouldn’t be able to make it in, but that her brother could come in and help out.  Fine by me.  Then Saturday morning rolls around and they both show up.  How cool is that?!?  You think you’re getting one volunteer and suddenly you have two.  We sure had a great time. 

I quickly learned that working with volunteers who are brother and sister makes for a hilarious morning at the library.  It was great fun to listen to them gently bicker with one another about whether “guy books” or “girl books” should be on display.  Their opposing tastes in books turned out to be highly valuable input that allowed for the displays to cater to a variety of interests.  My favorite moment was not when I could see how proud they were of themselves and their work, nor was it when they were talking about how they were having a good time and would like to volunteer again, rather, my favorite moment was when Anthony said, “Yeah, I’ve always kinda thought that if I could ever be a Greek God, I would be the God of Libraries.”

The next time you’re at the Fairmount St. Library make a point to stop by the YA section and see the new setup.   The circulating videogames are now on a different shelf, and the “NEW” books have their own display unit.  Feel free to let us know what you like/dislike.  We love suggestions, especially from our teen patrons.  Plus, if you’re ever interested in volunteering let us know.  You can always apply the time you spend helping out towards service hours that you might need to accrue for school or church.

Oh, and actually, my favorite moment of the day was when Anthony was giving Bethany a hard time about putting so many of the “girl books” on display and she replied with, “You’re just mad that you don’t get to read the girl books.  You wish you could read girl books.  You wish.”

Thanks to both Anthony and Bethany for their fantastic help!

-Christie