PA Forward Commons

Drop in Yoga in the library offered to students, faculty, and staff at no cost. Yoga mats provided by Bucks Wellness, Bucks County Community College. Taking place in the library every Thursday at 11am. Signage was posted outside the room inviting drop ins. It proved to be a great stress reliever for students, especially during exams.

We are a member of the Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibit Service, which allows us access to their traveling poster exhibits at no charge – beyond printing and laminating material. This exhibit focuses on women’s suffrage and remaining racial struggles.

“A Summer Read” and annual program developed with York County Libraries, similar to One Book One Community. The program encourages library patrons from York County to borrow the selected book, read it, and talk about it in their community. This campaign is designed to support communities in Central Pennsylvania during and after the COVID-19 health crisis.York County Libraries joins public libraries in an 8-county region to participate in “A Summer Read.” A Summer Read is a reading initiative for adults, teens, and seniors during the summer months from June to September. Wellspan: Aligning Forces for Quality – South Central Pennsylvania (AF4Q) and WITF Transforming Health Series sponsor the program.

Dr. Larry Cook entertained and educated patrons in his historical presentation Symbols of Patriotism. His soon-to-be released book highlights the lives of the 12 First Ladies that have been or are members of the Daughters of the American Revolution and includes their patriot ancestors that made them eligible to be a member. The first two registrants received a free copy of his book. We raffled off an additional copy of his book in the Zoom meeting.

This is a fun and informative class on Zoom where participants learn learn basic Japanese and about Japanese culture. The class is run for 4 weeks and is taught by a Fulbright Scholar Teaching Assistant from the University of Scranton. The facilitator volunteered her time to the library.

Quarterly, a group of patrons gets together to discuss social justice topics, specifically in regards to the selected book. At the end of the year, the group makes suggestions for topics and the library staff member chooses books for the following year. Topics have included: gun control, opiate addiction, the housing crisis, childfree living, immigration, among others.

Over the summer I created 3 videos for a cooking series. Each video introduced several basic kitchen skills to children and walked them through a recipe. We started simple with a salad and discussed knife skills and preparing fruits and vegetables. The second video was energy bites and we discussed measuring dry and wet ingredients. For the final recipe I made banana muffins and discussed measuring.

Messy Science is a popular summer series that we adapted to present to our patrons virtually. During the library shutdown, I began posting videos with simple science experiments using things kids would have at home. Each video was fairly short, typically around 5 minutes long. Once we were back in the library building, I continued with “Messy Science Mondays” and filmed the science experiments in the library building (or outside). Popular experiments included “Rainbow in a Jar,” “Solar Oven,” “Rock Candy,” and “Exploding Baggie.”

We originally were going to have a series of Wellness programs on alternating Wednesdays over the Summer including Zumba, Qi Gong, Essential Oils, and Singing Bowl Meditation. We had to alter the programs a little to present them virtually instead of in person.

Come along with us on a journey through some of the most well-beloved fairy tales. We will sing with princesses, dance with three little pigs, and drum along with Jack on his beanstalk, all while avoiding some big bad wolves! Presented by Radcliff Music Studio.