Paul Ryan once said, “Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.” In a similar vein, the public library holds that every successful organization knows that its achievement depends on a community of partners working together.
Over the past several years, staff members from Warren County Public Library have worked with staff from the Warren County Parks and Recreation team on projects to better serve overlapping populations. With a mission to reach as many youth as possible, the library-parks partnership has been a win-win situation for all involved!
In 2019, Warren County Parks & Rec developed a “Rec on The Run” program to help those who were unable to travel to a park location for organized activities. The outreach program aimed to serve youth by traveling to a number of sites throughout Warren County. Following the tornadoes in 2021, responding to an increased number of participants and realizing that our missions and service populations overlapped, the public library and parks crews started working together to implement free and organized activities across the community.
What resulted was “THRIVE,” a partnership project that now brings media, movement, and mentors to neighborhoods and other partner organizations across the county during the summer, by way of pop-up programs in various neighborhoods and camp experiences at county parks. While open to all, the programs particularly benefit those who might not be easily able to visit a library or a park and those who may not be able to afford events with costs involved.
THRIVE camps are family ones, provided free of charge and geared toward elementary students accompanied by at least one parent or caregiver per family unit. While the target age is kids entering grades three through six, all ages may participate. At the time of writing this article, there are openings in the following sessions (see warrenpl.org/camps to register):
•Space-themed Galaxy Family Camp: week of June 10
•Science-themed STEM Family Camp: week of June 24
•Nature Family Camp: week of July 8
•Pirate Family Camp: week of July 22
Having a library branch located at the Michael O. Buchanon Park’s Tennis & Multipurpose Facility has been a boon to the growing community and business expansions out 31-W/Nashville Road. Open Monday through Friday from 10am until 6pm (closed for lunch 2pm to 3pm) and on Saturday from 10am until 2pm, (closed Sunday) this location provides a full range of library services, Wi-Fi access, and computer laptops for in-house use.
Because of their unique spaces, parks also make for fabulous event locations. The Aviation Heritage Park is another valuable partner, having graciously hosted a number of library events in the past few years. It will partner with WCPL again this summer on Sunday, July 7, on an event with the authors of American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky, Sherri Smith and Elizabeth Wein. Their book tells a captivating true story from aviation history, and their publisher, Penguin Random House, provides the following summary:
From the acclaimed author of Flygirl and the bestselling author of Code Name Verity comes the thrilling and inspiring true story of the desegregation of the skies. American Wings follows a group of determined Black Americans: Cornelius Coffey and Johnny Robinson, skilled auto mechanics; Janet Harmon Bragg, a nurse; and Willa Brown, a teacher and social worker. Together, they created a flying club and built their own airfield south of Chicago. As the U.S. hurtled toward World War II, they established a school to train new pilots, teaching both Black and white students together and proving, in a time when the U.S. military was still segregated, that successful integration was possible. Featuring rare historical photographs, American Wings brings to light a hidden history of pioneering Black men and women who, with grit and resilience, battled powerful odds for an equal share of the sky.
Both women are acclaimed authors with a keen interest in aviation. Sherri Smith’s historical fiction novel about a black female pilot in WWII, Flygirl, was the winner of the California Book Awards’ Gold Medal. She also wrote Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? among other titles. Wein, also a recreational pilot, wrote the New York Times bestseller Code Name Verity, which was an Edgar Award winner, and A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II, a finalist for YALSA’s Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. Free tickets for their presentation are available through the library’s calendar of events (warrenpl.org/events).
We are excited that the Aviation Heritage Park will also be the site for the end-of-summer celebration and Summer Reading Finale, “Mission Complete,” on August 1. See the library’s website for additional details. And to find out all the events taking place at the library as well as those offsite with our partners, follow us on social media and sign up for our online newsletter!
-by Ashley Fowlkes
