The Calhoun County Library had a successful, fun time at all of the Purple Martin festivities last weekend, despite the rain.
Somewhat bright and early, our Bookmobile made an appearance
during the Purple Martin Parade at 10 AM. We traveled a few miles, throwing
purple skittles for your enjoyment. Through little and big spurts of rain, we
had a few dedicated people stand tall watching the parade and getting a
sugar-filled snack.
Then, from 11 AM - 3 PM, we painted purple martins at our
tent between the library and the courthouse at the Purple Martin Festival.
Calhoun County High School students of Mr. Sawvell drew outlines for our
painters to guide them on how to get the best angle of the beautiful purple
martin birds. We had many visitors who wanted to paint, grab a free book, and
learn about all our programs, services, and materials. Sadly, we also ran into
a few bands of rain. Practicing quick decision-making by our interns, they
moved as many patrons under the tent as they could to ensure their paintings
did not get ruined and then draped the rest with bright purple table cloths
until the storm passed. We did not let the rain dampen our mood though!
In addition to painting purple martins, we had a very
special program: the Birds of Prey Program from the Avian Conservation Center.
This program focuses on history, conservation, and preservation and keeping
animals safe. During the two showings we had of this event, the first at 12:30
PM and the second at 2 PM, we had live birds in the library! A Mississippi
kite, northern white-faced owl, and a red-tailed hawk were in the library
flying around. Each bird had an important message for us. One of them was about
not littering because the red-tailed hawk came to their care facility full of
BB pellets, a broken wing, and an infected eye. Now the bird only has one eye,
which means they can never be released back into the wild. We even got to
witness how this affected his flying because he tried to land and ended up
crashing. This program is presented by The Avian Conversation Center located in
Awendaw, South Carolina and we would like to thank them for such an informative
and enlightening program.
While all of this was happening, the Friends of the Calhoun
County Library were having a fantastic book sale where everything was only 50
cents! This included books, puzzles, and movies. We had many browsers and
customers who purchased a lot of materials. Be on the lookout for more
information about our next big Friends Book Sale coming soon!
Thank you to everyone who watched us in the parade and
stopped by the library or our tent for some fun. This is another successful,
yet rainy, Purple Martin Parade and Festival in the books!