Huron County Community Library Partners with CLI

​The Huron County Community Library is excited to announce another partnership with CLI.  Last winter, the Giving Hands volunteers, a CLI group, donated part of their soap sales to the Huron County Community Library to purchase toys for children with Sensory Processing Disorder.  The toys were so popular that Librarian Victoria Vogel and Children’s Programming Associate Cathy Joppeck requested grant funding through the LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) program, funded through the independent federal agency IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services), to provide even more adaptive toys for children of varying abilities to enjoy.  

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The Giving Hands volunteers helped to process the toys for use by placing library stickers on them, installing batteries and testing them out.  These toys will be used for programming for the duration of the summer reading program (June 4-July 14), and then will be made to available for the public to borrow. 
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This year’s summer reading theme is “Libraries Rock!” Two Music and Movement storytimes will be hosted in Greenwich, North Fairfield and Wakeman inviting children to explore music by making their own music in their own way. The Willard library will use the toys in each of their twelve storytimes.  Each storytime will have a musical theme.  Kids will be encouraged to try a different musical toy out each week and explore sound and rhythm through movement and self-exploration. In addition to storytimes the Wakeman library plans to offer two “Eat to the Beat” programs where lunch will be served in conjunction with an activity where participants can make music with the toys.  In addition, the toys will be available for parents and children to use in the children’s area anytime for spontaneous drop-in play. Once the summer rotation is over, the toys will be packaged to circulate and made available to patrons for checkout.  The Huron County Community Library seeks to incorporate these toys in their summer activities in a way that both kids and parents will enjoy.

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