Vehicle Day

The meeting room at my library is currently under renovation.  We are currently four months behind and I thought that with all of this time that I wouldn't be doing programming, I would have some more time on my hands. This has not been the case. I've been a little too involved in collection development projects.  Needless to say, I've been neglecting this blog for a while. So I'm going to post some older events.

We'll start with Vehicle Day! In 2009, we hosted a Fire Truck at our library during Fire Prevention week in October.  We had fire engine/fire fighter storytimes on the hour, patrons could explore the fire truck, and I even made cute fire truck cookies. I've wanted the fire truck to come back for a long time....but it's not easy to get in touch with volunteer fire fighters.  Since we would have to come up with more creative programming without having a meeting room, I decided that we should have Vehicle Day at the library featuring all different kinds of vehicles. This would be an event that we could hold outdoors (weather permitting) and would appeal to all ages.


While this is one of the cheapest programs I have ever done, it was the most difficult to plan due to all of the communication with local groups that was involved. Also, since we are a joint library, serving two towns, I  wanted to make sure we had both towns represented at Vehicle Day.  When trying to get in contact with local groups that are run by volunteers such as the fire department and first aid squad, it was difficult to figure out exactly who to contact since the person in charge can change so frequently. In some cases, they had a Facebook page that I could send a message through the library’s account. However, please don’t let the communication difficulties deter you. It turns out that the police departments in both towns put the event on their calendars, and followed up with us last minute. Our Library Director, Kimberly Paone, assisted with contacting the Matawan Fire Department and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office when she attended town-wide days (Aberdeen Day, Matawan Day) that were held around the date of Vehicle Day.  In the end it all came together, and we were able to secure four different vehicles. The Matawan Police Department kindly closed off the street next to the library on an autumn day and two police cars (one from each town), a street sweeper from the Matawan Department of Public Works, a hummer from the Monmouth County Sherfiff’s Office, and a fire engine from the Matawan Fire Department were parked for kids of all ages and adults to explore. We offered vehicle storytimes on the hour and the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office set up a table for parents and adults to sign up for county issued ID cards for them and their children. They also took the photos for the IDs while they were here and later mailed them to our patrons. When thank you notes were sent to the groups that participated, our Friends of the Library were kind enough to include a donation to the Matawan Fire Department. 

Something you might notice in the picture below is a yellow hat. When we cleaned out our storage space for the meeting room renovation, we found about 75 yellow plastic construction hats that said "Readers at Work." They were clearly from a time before me, so we saved them and handed them out to anyone who wanted one at Vehicle Day. 

Patrons and staff have asked when this year's Vehicle Day will be- I think I want to get through Summer Reading first! But I must admit- even I had a great time at Vehicle Day!