More than just Friends of the Library
Students in grades third through fifth attended special presentations in the Onaway Area Community Schools Media Center to learn about journaling and animal rehabilitation.
Those are some weighty topics for young students. That is, unless author Robbyn Smith is presenting the program.
Smith and well-known illustrator Nick Van Frankenhuyzen were both in Onaway for the entire school day as part of a special event sponsored by the Onaway Friends of the Library.
Van Frankenhuyzen, who illustrated ?The Legend of Mackinac Island?, ?The Legend of Sleeping Bear Dunes?, as well as other children?s books, taught students from kindergarten through second grade simple drawing techniques.
Near the end of the school day, Van Frankenhuyzen still had a warm smile on his face as he taught a packed room of students how to draw a lion.
WITH EACH detail, a lion started appearing before the excited eyes of the students. Some of them picked up their paper and growled as they held the paper in front of the student sitting next to them.
Van Frankenhuyzen still had enough energy to assist a student and marvel at their work.
Smith gave a detailed, lively, program. She occasionally shook the students from their seats with her loud animated bursts, whether it was imitating a chain saw or an old woman?s voice. Elementary principal Nancy Miiller said the students and teachers ?loved it. They are fabulous people.? She added that the school cannot afford to bring these types of programs to the school. The Onaway Friends also brought in the ?Madcap Puppets? from Cincinnati last spring.
Both programs were made possible with the assistance of the Onaway Friends of the Library, an active group of local residents interested in expanding new horizons of not only students in the local schools, but adults as well.
ALONG WITH the school programs such as Wednesday?s, the Onaway Friends volunteer to read to students, purchase supplemental reading books for the classrooms, and recently have been reaching out to local residents through the ?First Tuesdays? program.
About 130 people attended the first two programs. The first was about the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps., while the program in early October by historian Ken Radzibon was about the Civil War.
The first program was conducted at the Ocqueoc Outdoor Center. The followpresentation was made in the old courtroom of the Onaway Courthouse.
?When we started it, we wanted to model it after the Brown Bag program in Rogers City,? said Friends president Peggy Skuse. ?We wanted something to get more seniors and more people involved with the library. So, we have been thinking of things people would like to see.?
The group plans lectures and events through April. The next program will be presented by Sue Bronson of Log Mark Bookstore of Cheboygan, who will discuss ideas for Christmas and holiday reading.
Each program will be at 1 p.m. Jan Bieri, owner of the Cinderella?s Closet, will present a fashion and style show in January.
?It is to create different interests to try and get people to come to the library,? said Skuse.
PAT PREGITZER has been pleased to have the Friends involved in the many improvements to the library in Onaway, including the relocation to the courthouse, as well as improvements to the facility and programs.
Wednesday?s program at the school was made possible thanks to a $150,000 endowment fund set up by Paul Wagner, in his wife Mae?s name. The special gift was put into an account, with the interest from the fund being allowed for special uses, specifically to expand programs outside of the library. ?Our goal is to help and enlighten Onaway children,? said Pregitzer.
The group conducted a two-day book sale at the courthouse last weekend and collected $231. That?s not too bad considering the books cost only 2
According to member Annie Sabatovich, the volunteer reading program has not only been a value to students, but readers as well.
?I think it is wonderful. I am around kids more, because I am not around my own kids that often,? said Sabatovich. ?It also has helped a lot of the children there.? Some volunteers, such as Michele Peters, volunteer to read every day.
?We would like to continue working with programs that can be a value at school,? said Sabatovich. And school officials are more than happy to have the group involved.
The Onaway Friends of the Library: Friends to the library, students, and the community.