Mrs. Claus Holiday Celebration @ Little Egg Harbor

The Kitty Jones Interactive Theatre performed Mrs. Claus Holiday Celebration  at the Little Egg Harbor Library Thursday Dec. 8.  The interactive holiday show featured many of the audience members as part of the show.   President of T.A.B. Hadeel and Vice President Abdullah, along with fellow T.A.B. members Marcus and Chris, were Sugar Plums. Many of the children and adults also participated in other roles dancing and singing throughout the play.  Everyone was filled with the holiday spirit and enjoyed participating and watching the performance. 

Patrick Rodgers present Sendak program

Patrick Rodgers

The Little Egg Harbor Library is hosting the Maurice Sendak exhibit “In a Nutshell: The Worlds of Maurice Sendak” October 26 – December 16, 2011. The branch is one of 35 sites selected to receive the exhibit.

The “In a Nutshell” exhibit was developed by Nextbook, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Jewish literature, culture, and ideas. The national tour of the exhibit has been made possible by grants from The Charles H. Revson Foundation, The Righteous Persons Foundation, The David Berg Foundation, and an anonymous donor, with additional support from Tablet Magazine: A New Read on Jewish Life.

Patrick Rodgers, Traveling Exhibitions Coordinator of The Rosenbach Museum and Library, presented The Nutshell Sendak as the opening event of the exhibit on November 2.  His program was sponsored by the Friends of the Little Egg Harbor branch.

From “Wild Things” to “Really Rosie,” Maurice Sendak’s picture books have captivated children and adults alike for more than 60 years.  Rodgers’ lecture  explored the motivations behind some of the illustrator’s artwork, featuring recent interview footage with Sendak that is as intriguing and humorous as his picture books.

LEH Halloween Parade

 

Little Egg Harbor hosted the annual Halloween Parade  Thursday, October 20^th.  The parents, grandparents and caregivers came to the library to join in the Halloween fun.  There were many creative costumes and make-up this year.   We had everything from Cookie Monster to a pirate, princesses, vampires and even a scuba diver.  The children started out the day with a scavenger hunt in the children’s area then paraded around the library into the meeting room where there were games and refreshments.  Miss Michelle, dressed as Snow White, was in charge of the Plinko Game.  Everyone had a great time!

Philly Rock ‘n Roll icon coming to LEH

Entertainment icon Jerry Blavat will talk about his 58 years in Rock ‘n Roll and discuss his autobiography “You Only Rock Once: My Life in Music” Tuesday Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Ocean County Library’s Little Egg Harbor branch, 290 Mathistown Rd.

 Blavat debuted as a dancer on the television program “Original Bandstand” hosted by Bob Horn.  At 16 he was the road manager for Danny and the Juniors, a top Doo Wop group.

 Since then it has been a colorful life, from his life-long friendships with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Don Rickles, to his entertainment career as a radio Disc Jockey and television personality, performer, entertainer, producer, and nightclub owner.

 Blavat personified the Philadelphia Rock ‘n Roll music scene.  In 1960 he started his own radio show on WCAM (AM) in Camden.  In 1965 he produced and hosted his own television show, “The Discophonic Scene,” on the CBS Philadelphia outlet WCAU-TV. From 1967 to 1970 it aired on WFIL-TV and was nationally syndicated.

 He shunned the British Invasion, rejected “format radio” so he could always work independently.

 Blavat has appeared on “The Tonight Show,” “The Mike Douglas Show,” “The Joey Bishop Show,” “The Mod Squad” and “The Monkeys.”  He also appeared in feature films including “Desperately Seeking Susan,” “Baby, it’s You,” and “Cookie.”

 He has remained a music fixture in Philadelphia, delivering a high-energy radio program throughout the Middle America region that includes his Margate nightclub “Memories” and regular radio shows on 88.5 FM WXPN in Philadelphia; 92.1 FM WVLT in South Jersey; and 98.3 WTKU in Atlantic City.

 Blavat is currently involved with PBS on their Doo Wop specials.  He is the area’s host when the show air locally over WHYY-TV.

His work has been recognized by his peers and he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1998); The Philadelphia Music Alliance’s Hall of Fame (1993); and the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia’s Hall of Fame (2002.)

 The library program is free and open to the public.  For more information telephone the branch at (609) 294-1197 or visit the library’s Web site www.theoceancountylibrary.org .

LEH learns Spanish dance steps

On Monday, July 25^th Eva Lucena and another member of the Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre gave instructions and demonstrations of Spanish dancing.  Audience participation was encouraged with clapping rhythms, using fans and learning dance steps.  Our own S.A.I.L coordinator learned how to play the castanets.  Everyone had an enjoyable Spanish dancing experience!

Tuckerton & LEH partner to host Teen Health Fair

The Tuckerton and Little Egg Harbor libraries partnered together and held a Teen Health Fair for 65 teens and parents on June 30. 

 Presenters included LEH Lieutenant Tom Williams and Cpl. Todd Jillson who talked about driver safety and graduated driving laws. The teens enjoyed the open question section and kept the officers busy for awhile. 

 Rite Aid Pharmacy Wellness Ambassador Sarah Grant spoke about programs that are available to teens; Megan Pehanick from the PX branch showed teens how to access the OCL Teen Health and Wellness Database for personal and research information. Linda Van Melis from NAMI-National Alliance of Mental Illness provided information on mental illness and ADHD; Mary Trainor from the Stafford School District presented information on nutrition and exercise.

 Teens were provided with healthy snack choices, a variety of free pamphlets, free books, giveaways, a raffle, an interactive table where they could do activities that simulated disabilities, a nutritional display of how much salt and sugar are in our favorite foods and exercising fun with Wii Fit and PS2’s Dance, Dance Revolution.

Little Egg Harbor

King Rupert entertained children and adults about various people and cultures. By using a few tricks, puppetry, songs and games everyone was able to join in the fun!

OCL enables teens to create!

Local teens will have several new opportunities to express their creative side at the Ocean County Library this winter through classes presented by Youth Stages. 

Founded in 1996 by Jean Prall Rosolino, Youth Stages is an arts-in-education organization that connects professional artist-educators with libraries and other community organizations serving young people and their families. 

It will offer Glee Club at the Brick branch, 301 Chambers Bridge Rd., Wednesday Jan. 5, 2011 at 6:30 p.m.  The program is loosely based on the hit television show.  Teens will act, sing, create scenery and then join it all together with movement to create a fabulous glee-filled concert!

Teens will be encouraged to create believable characters and make up dialogue for scenes in “Whose Library is it Anyway?”  an improvisational acting take-off of a popular cable TV program.  Programs will take place on:

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. at the Little Egg Harbor branch, 290 Mathistown Rd.

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Lacey branch, 10 E. Lacey Rd.

Monday, Feb. 28, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. at the Island Heights branch, 121 Central Av.

Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Toms River branch, 101 Washington St.

The Plumsted branch, 119 Evergreen Rd., will present “Murder on the Ship,” a night of creative drama themed games Monday, Feb. 7 at 6:30 p.m.

 All programs are free and open to the public.  Please contact the individual branches for more information.   Please register in-person or online at www.theoceancountylibrary.org.

LEH TAB meets

Last night the LEH TAB held their monthly meeting in the cozy meeting room that was recently decorated with handmade quilts by The Seaport Stitchers Quilters Guild.

TAB members made friendship bracelets and discussed programs they would like to host at the library in the coming year.

We also invited five TABetts (TAB in training members)  to attend.  The TABetts are in sixth grade and will be eligible to volunteer this summer. They enjoyed the meeting and are looking forward to volunteering at the Little Egg Harbor Branch.

LEH hosts Halloween parade

On Tuesday, October 26^th we held our annual Halloween parade.  The library was transformed into a festive Halloween party and parade.  Little fairies, princesses, monkeys, firemen and all sorts of creative costuming adorned the children ages birth to five.  There was a scavenger hunt in the children’s area and then a parade through the pier, followed by a piñata that broke open to the children’s delight.  We had 40 children and 45 adults enjoying themselves.  Then the party moved into the meeting room where there were cookies and juice as well as spinning wheel games.  All of the food was supplied by the Friends of Little Egg Harbor Library.

Everyone had a great time!