Thanks to Katherine Elchert, the youth services manager at the Rice Lake Public Library for this guest post!
The Rice Lake Public Library hosts our annual holiday extravaganza on the first Saturday of December. Instead of our regular family storytime + crafts, the library goes all out with a fun performer, a visit from Santa, milk and cookies, and a free book to every child from our Friends of the Library group.
This year we invited a Minneapolis-based band – Koo Koo Kanga Roo – to kick off the celebration. They were amazing…. Bryan and Neil put on a hilarious, hour-long show and then stayed to chat with their adoring fans. Koo Koo Kanga Roo has developed a bit of a cult following here in Rice Lake as many of the elementary schools use their lively music videos as dance breaks. When I was buying my prize books, I went through a Rice Lake elementary school teacher’s Scholastic account. We were chatting when I mentioned the holiday party and how I hoped to book Koo Koo Kanga Roo….. she (enthusiastically!) explained how they all use Koo Koo dance videos in their classroom! Even with that knowledge in mind, the RLPL staff was blown away to see over 400 patrons turn out for this event!
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| Everyone’s excited to dance with Koo Koo Kangaroo |
We were lucky because the Rice Lake Holiday Parade was the Thursday night before the event. The library stayed open late, gave out hot chocolate & cookies and handed out flyers (with candy canes) promoting the event. Several staff members walked in the parade, collected letters to Santa and handed out even more flyers! It was an easy and fun way to invite new patrons to a RLPL event.
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| There were craft projects and photo opportunities while kids waited to see Santa |
After the Koo Koo Kanga Roo show, everyone was excited to share their Christmas wishes with Santa! Crowd control was a challenge, but patrons kept busy at different craft stations, snacking on milk & cookies and entering a Holiday Family Photo contest. Overall, it was a wonderful way to celebrate the holidays at the Rice Lake Public Library!
This wonderful event was sponsored by the Friends of the Rice Lake Public Library and the Rice Lake Area Mens Club. We can’t thank them enough!