The warm weather has brought two groups together, kicking off a program for kids which brings reading out of the library and into the great outdoors.
Lisa Rand, Youth Services Coordinator at Boyertown Community Library, said the library received an invitation about from Josh Smith of Frecon Farms about starting a storytime program. She thought it would be a one-time thing, but it turned into a series.
Throughout the month of July, the library and Frecon Farms have been working together to host a storytime program for children in the community. The program, which is lead by the library, takes place right in the orchard.
“I try to bring stories that have something to do with summer; we talk about the insects and the kinds of foods that grow outside,” said Rand. “I’m trying to help the kids to see the library beyond the walls of the building. For me, it’s been pretty cool that I can do a song or a rhyme about a butterfly, and one of the children yells out ‘Miss Lisa, there’s a butterfly right about your head!'”
“We’re very proud to be building the storytime program as a way to gets the kids outside, reconnect them with the food they’re eating and educate them on what it takes to produce fruit right here in Boyertown,” said Smith. “Education has always been at the core of our business, so it only made sense to collaborate with the library to help build awareness for their programs and ours.”
Frecon Farms provides the space for the program and a refreshment table with fresh fruits. Rand said Josh Smith’s enthusiasm is infectious when they’re all out there together.
“He really has a strong interest in helping families to be able to have better access to the produce we have growing in the community,” said Rand about Smith. “He’s really excited about anything that brings people together with the fresh food right there, and you’re getting to have fun at the same time you’re getting to learn about the agricultural heritage in our community.”
The program has three key components: song, story, and movement.
“Being in an outdoor space, we have more room to move around, to do big circles, than we’d have in the library.” She said after the story and song portion are wrapped up, Smith takes the group for a short walk to see something that’s growing. “He wants them to have a chance to experience how the food in your hand is what is growing in the trees.”
So far they’ve visited the cherry trees and the blueberry bushes, with folks given the chance to pick their own to try.
“We got to try a couple different locations. It’s really fun. It’s at 9 in the morning, before it gets really hot,” said Rand, adding how it’s a chance for community members to see a business and organization working together and helping each other for the sake of the common good. “When people work together, you can really make something fun happen in a way that we can’t do when we’re just trying to do it on our own.”
The program is open to kids of all ages.
“It’s exciting for the kids to have that instant hands-on experience,” said Rand. “When the kids are excited, they’re more likely to make that connection with the library and having fun.”
Smith said they’re looking forward to even more programming in the future, including kids culinary classes and storytime walks, with a portion of the proceeds going straight to the library to help with their new facility.
While the library will be relocating in August, the program will continue. Interested parties should contact the library for additional details.
Rand added, “it’s really fun to get to take the stories outside of the walls and have other ways that children can interact, and see the stories going beyond the pages of the book and into the grassy place they’re sitting in.”
Storytime is held Thursdays at 9 a.m. (weather permitting) through October. During August, the group will be by the blueberry patch, and in September they will return to the apple orchard.
