Summer Entertainment at Your Neighborhood Rapides Parish Library!

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The Rapides Parish Library Summer Reading Program is designed to encourage elementary-aged children, teens, and adults to keep reading during summer vacation.  The “Build a Better World” theme for this year opens plenty of possibilities, through construction, architecture, and conservation. While the Summer Reading Program is primarily geared toward children, we also have programs for adults, tweens, and teens. There are great programs that feature everything from coupon clipping in order to save money to creating useful items from recycled and up-cycled water and soda bottles. When we say the Rapides Parish Library has something for everyone, it’s true!

 

Summer Entertainment at Your Neighborhood Rapides Parish Library!Youth Services Programming Manager, Karla Kirby, works all year to book the entertainment portion of the summer reading program. This year is no different. There are familiar favorites coming to each library.   First up, from June 12th through June 16th is none other than Lady Chops!  Elizabeth Vidos, also known as Lady Chops, is bringing her one-woman drumming show to the Rapides Parish Library this summer! She is a talented percussionist whose past work includes performing in the hit show “Stomp”. Her program titled, “Drum Roll Please”, is energetic, interactive and fun for all ages as she incorporates over 15 different instruments, including buckets, body percussion, and the Cajun rub-board.

 

Summer Entertainment at Your Neighborhood Rapides Parish Library!Beginning June 26th and running through to June 30th is our friend Mike Anderson-The Dulcimer Guy.  Mike Anderson is the quintessential folklorist and musician. Anderson’s whimsy and wit are always a hit with the children and parents as he introduces the musical instruments that traveled in the pockets and saddlebags of pioneer men and women as they moved across young America.  Anderson also sings folk songs, many which are teaching songs and moral tales, sprinkled with his own original music and lyrics.

 

This year, for the first time, logging your books during the Summer Reading Program is easier and more fun than ever before! Now, using Beanstack, you can go online at www.rpl.org and log your read books from anywhere!  When you sign up for the Summer Reading Program, just ask your librarian how to get started.   It’s easy-peasy!

 

Summer Entertainment at Your Neighborhood Rapides Parish Library!In November 2017, the Rapides Parish Library will celebrate 75 years of service to the community. Each month, we will share a historical factoid that highlights the evolution of the Rapides Parish Library from 1942 to present.  This month’s Rapides Parish Library 75th Anniversary Moment is from 1942: “America’s First Line of Defense–A Well-Informed People–Rapides Parish Library–Vote for its Support”. World War II brought servicemen and their families from around the country to train for overseas engagement in the Pacific theater. The local Alexandria Public Library and the parish-wide Louisiana Library Commission quickly found providing reading materials to citizens and the growing military population an overwhelming prospect. On September 4, 1942, the Rapides Parish Police Jury met to discuss taking authority of the library system. Within days, the Police Jury voted to ask for a 1 mill tax. Like a well-organized military maneuver, a 38-day campaign was taken door-to-door; on November 5th, a 1/2 mill tax for five years to assist the Rapides Parish Library system was approved 492 to 108. Thus began the Rapides Parish Library system’s service to the community.