Teen Night is Back with a Bang

            Need a spare tire put on your car? Call one of our teens from Teen Night at the library! Lee Hollingsworth of Hutto's Transmission came to speak at Calhoun County Library’s Teen Night about car care.

On Tuesday, October 17, 2023, Lee Hollingsworth presented a hands-on approach to learning about how a car works and how to maintain it during Teen Night at the library. Hollingsworth taught the teens many important aspects about a car including:

1.      Where the radiator is located and how to check the water in it (do not check it when the engine is hot).

2.      Where the oil well is located and how to use the dipstick to check oil.

3.      Where the washer fluid tank is located and what to put in it (do not use soap because it will leave a soap residue on the windshield).

4.      Where the battery is located and how to use jumper cables to jumpstart a car.

5.      Where the spare tire and jack are located in a car, truck, and Jeep.

6.      How to use the jack and chock the wheels of the car.

7.      How to check the air in a tire with a tire gauge.

8.      How to put air in a tire.

After instructing teens about each aspect, Hollingsworth put them to the test. The teens actually removed the lug nuts with a lug wrench and then took the tires off, rotated them, and put them back on. After that, they checked the air pressure in the tires and put more air in the ones that were low. They engaged in other hands-on activities with the car as well and many said they learned a lot from this experience.

We appreciate all of the teens that came with the mindset to learn important skills. The Calhoun County Library appreciates Lee Hollingsworth for teaching and for his time.

Join us for Teen Night on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 5 PM from October through May. This program is for teens ages 12 – 17 and open to all teens in our county.

We are so happy that Teen Night is back and we’re learning important life skills!

Boo!

            We want to see you on Halloween Night! The Calhoun County Library is holding a fun Halloween event for everyone to come play some games and get a sweet treat.

Come visit the library on Halloween night from 5 PM – 7 PM. There will be games, prizes, Halloween books, and more. There will be Bat Bullseye, Ring ‘dem Bones, and many more games to keep everyone laughing and having fun. Also, if you ever wanted to feel how some monster organs feel, stick your hand into our Sensory Squirm. Adults, don’t worry; it’s harmless! Touch some vampire veins, witch’s fingers, eerie eyeballs, and so on.

This event will be a “boo-tiful” night for all ages. Stop by for a little bit while trick or treating to have some fun at the library. After playing the games and winning prizes, every child will get a Halloween book of their choice and some yummy cotton candy from Twisted Sugar!. The best part about this spooky evening is that everything is entirely FREE!

We look forward to seeing all of our creative people in their unique costumes. Join us at the Boo Bash!

An Evening with the Author

            The community had a chance to meet an award-winning local author last week at the Calhoun County Library.

On Thursday, October 12, 2023, C. Hope Clark visited the Calhoun County Library to discuss her Edisto Island Mysteries series. Hope was born and raised in the South, from Mississippi to South Carolina with a few stints in Alabama and Georgia. The granddaughter of a Mississippi cotton farmer, Hope holds a B.S. in Agriculture with honors from Clemson University and 25 years’ experience with the U. S. Department of Agriculture to include awards for her management, all of which enable her to talk the talk of Carolina Slade, the protagonist in her first series. Her love of writing, however, carried her up the ranks to the ability to retire young, and she left USDA to pen her stories and freelance. Clark is the author of The Carolina Slade Mysteries, The Edisto Island Mysteries, and The Craven County Mysteries. She’s the editor of FundsforWriters, one of the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers, and published in The Writer Magazine, Writer’s Digest, Guide to Literary Agents, Writer’s Market, and other trade and online publications. C. Hope Clark’s Edisto Island Mystery Series is set entirely at Edisto Beach, South Carolina, her home away from home. Murder on Edisto, the first book in the series, was chosen to represent the state of South Carolina.

Patrons enjoyed sandwiches and cookies as they were intrigued by the author’s engaging stories of how she came up with characters such as female sleuths, and plots that kept readers turning pages. We were enlightened by the fact that her website, FundsforWriters.com, featured weekly publications that reached over 35,000 readers. It was a wonderful event and we were fortunate to have the opportunity to meet Hope.

We are currently planning a local author fair for the spring, so keep an eye out for more information to follow!

We would like to extend our appreciation to C. Hope Clark and the Friends of the Calhoun County Library who made this event possible.

A Busy Baby

            The Calhoun County Library held a very successful Community Baby Shower on the last Sunday in September to celebrate all of the new parents in our county.

We had a fantastic turnout for our Community Baby Shower on Sunday, September 24, 2023. We had 70 people total, which included 30 mothers! That’s incredible. Babies are such a joy and we want a happy community with healthy babies. The Calhoun County Library and supporting partners throughout our county want to make sure every child is welcomed home with all the necessities. Therefore, we gifted each family with diapers, wipes, a bib, a pacifier and clip, a onesie, a welcome baby box, and five brand-new board books to start the baby’s home library. Parents also received a handmade baby blanket, thanks to the hel;pful hands of the Friends of the library and staff members.

Not only do we want to provide some necessary items, but we also want to connect our parents with the many resources we have in our community. Our partners, DHEC, First Steps, Family Health Center, MUSC Orangeburg, Natural Teacher, and OCAB Head Start, are valuable assets to these families, and this shower is the first time many of these parents are learning about each organization’s wealth of knowledge and support. Attendees enjoyed a lunch followed by cupcakes while listening and learning about newborns with various professionals from our community. After partners introduced themselves, we held a raffle, and thanks to community members’ donations, some lucky parents won wonderful prizes such as a bassinet, baby swings, Bumbo seat, hand crocheted blankets, and rocking baby seats. 

Parents had the opportunity to sign up for the library’s 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program and for First Steps’ Dolly Parton Imagination Library program. These two programs expose infants and toddlers to books and the love of reading by celebrating reading milestones and by providing a free book delivered to each child’s home every month. In addition to those programs, we gave the opportunity to sign up for library cards, for both parents and babies. With our new library cards, children can get their very first card as  infants!

Thank you to our partners, volunteers, and donors for our Community Baby Shower. It was a huge success and many parents received valuable information along with some great gifts and goodies. Thank you to our partners, our volunteers, and the Friends of the Calhoun County Library who helped prep bags and blankets before the event. Thank you DHEC/WIC St. Matthews for the beautiful crochet blankets. Thank you community members who donated baby items. You made some community members very happy! Without all of your help, this event would not be possible. We appreciate you!

Read 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

            At the Calhoun County Library, our program called 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten  promotes the importance of reading 1,000 books to your toddler before they start school. This may seem like a daunting task,but you’d be surprised how easily it can be accomplished. Bedtime stories, reading in the car, and even reading the same book over and over counts towards your 1,000 books!

            Reading at an early age promotes positive brain functionality and cognitive behaviors. As an incentive for our community of infants and toddlers, we have implemented 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten. Whether your child wants to read 1,000 different books or the same book 1,000 times, it counts! There's no better time to start reading than now! If you read just one book a night, you will have read 365 books in a year. That's 730 books in 2 years and 1095 books in 3 years!

            To sign up for 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, come visit the library to receive your reading log and have your child’s picture taken for our milestone walls. For every 100 books your child reads, he will be able to come into the library, enjoy a confetti party, get a treat, and move his picture up on the milestone walls.. If you cannot make it into the library to register, you can sign up online at https://calhouncountylibrary.beanstack.org/reader365.

            We look forward to celebrating every 100 books with your child and moving his picture on the milestone walls throughout the library. When your child reaches 1,000 books, we will display his picture on the 1,000 Books wall at the front desk so that everyone can see his accomplishment!