Another fabulous blog post from Alisha at the LE Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire. Send in your terrific ideas, too!
Don’t you love when one of your library programs sparks a new interest in someone? Within the last year I had received two separate requests from teen boys to bring Dazzling Dave, National Yo-Yo Master and world record holder, back to the library for another yo-yo program. Both boys had fallen in love with the hobby after learning to yo-yo at Dazzling Dave’s yo-yo workshop held in 2014. They checked out library materials and watched online videos to learn new tricks and practiced, practiced, practiced. One of the boys took 5th place in a Midwest yo-yo competition and even created a website. The other young man has aspirations of inventing a new yo-yo. And both boys do some pretty amazing tricks.
I was delighted to see the excitement in these two boys and invited them during spring break week to showcase their talent at the library in whatever way they were comfortable. One of the young men brought his yo-yos and gave lessons to library customers and performed some of his impressive tricks.
 |
| Demonstrating tricks |
The other young man put on two one-hour performances in the center of the library that drew good size crowds of people whose interest was piqued. Both of these “pop-up performances” brought a very fun and lively atmosphere to the library.
 |
| Pop-up performance–holding attention for an hour! |
Library staff was thrilled to be able to highlight the talent of our youth, and it meant a lot to the boys to be recognized by their library…the place that their love for yo-yos began. My desire is to continue to showcase the wide varieties of our customers’ talents. And here is to all of the wonderful librarians in our area and beyond that help to spark and foster new interests in our patrons.