Junior Friends of the Library Recap of 2013

The Junior Friends of the Hasbrouck Library had a successful year full of activities that catered to members, their families and the community. Since its founding in 2011, the Junior Friends has continued to grow its membership and has doubled their programming since the previous year. The group caters to members between the ages of 4-17 years old and was founded to get teens and preteens involved with the active Friends organization in supporting the library and its programming.

“We patterned the Junior Friends program on similar programs at the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, trying to promote innovative events at our local library,” said Chairman Justin Watrel. “The Juniors were challenged this year to bring in another celebrity for the ‘Celebration of Books’ event in supporting the library’s Summer Reading Program and creating their first fundraiser. We started the year with 28 members, 11 of them founding members of the organization and grew to 43 members by the end of the year.”

The Juniors started the year in March with their Third Annual Meeting that attracted 25 members and their guests who wanted to see what the group was all about. Some of the members brought up ideas about clothing and toy drives towards the holidays, a ‘Homework Buddies’ program, suggestions on new merchants for the Friends popular ‘Merchants Program’ and many suggestions on a sports figure to pursue for this year’s ‘Celebration of Books’ program, trying to top the big “Freaky Friday” program last year with celebrity author, Mary Rodgers. “The members really came up with some great ideas to promote the organization,” added Watrel. After the meeting, the members and their guests were treated to a pizza lunch and a dessert table.

The Junior Friends first big event was getting involved in the library’s Second Annual “Stuffed Animal Sleepover”. Under the direction of Children’s Librarian, Marie Joyce, the ‘Stuffed Animal Sleepover’ has become a popular new tradition at the library. The Juniors were invited to once again sponsor the volunteer’s dinner & dessert on Friday night and sponsor the breakfast for all participants the next morning. With more than 50 children and their parents, the kids sang, read a story and did a craft together with their parents before tucking their stuffed animals in for a night of frolic.

On Saturday morning, Juniors members helped with the set-up for breakfast, creating a beautiful continental breakfast of cakes, pies, fresh fruit, juice, and logoed ‘Junior Face’ cookies, which were also given to each volunteer as a thank you. Over 80 children and their parents enjoyed an afternoon of good food and an engaging slide show while picking up their stuffed animals.

To start the beginning of the Summer, the Juniors enjoyed their ‘Third Annual Sundae Making & Film Forum’. Members got to create their own Sundae concoctions and relax as we watched a retrospect on Alexander Key’s “Escape to Witch Mountain”, viewing both the original film and the remake. “It was a nice way for the members to kick back and relax after a long school year,” said Watrel. During the intermission, the membership, guests and volunteers enjoyed a pizza dinner.

One of the highlights of the Summer was when New York Giants player, Kevin Boothe attended the Juniors, ‘Celebration of Books’, supporting the library’s Summer Reading Program. “The idea of the ‘Celebration of Books’ came about when author, Maurice Sendak, passed away. When it was mentioned to a few of the members that the author had died, they said, “Who?” and I realized that entire generation was missing out on the great children’s literature of the past and that is where the idea for our ‘Freaky Friday’ event came from. We were really lucky when author, Mary Rodgers, agreed to join us for our 40th Anniversary Celebration of her book.”

“We were happy when we partnered with the Giants organization to bring Mr. Boothe to the library to help promote the Summer Reading Program,” said Watrel. Partnering with Children’s Librarian, Marie Joyce, she chose the book, “Everyone can learn to ride a Bicycle”, which was an inspirational story that was a big hit with 100 or so patrons, young and old who came to the event. Kevin was a very popular with the audience. After the program was over, Junior members got a chance to meet him in a private setting and get to talk to him one on one. “This is one of the nice advantages of membership is being able to meet our celebrity guests privately,” said Watrel. After the reading, there was a reception in Mr. Boothe’s honor.

Another innovative project the Juniors worked on was ‘Cooking with the Juniors-Part One Pizza Making’, a cooking class on how to make a personal pizza lead by Chef/Owner Nick Capasso of Roma Pizza. The class was to teach inspiring new chefs the proper way to make a pizza and then have lunch with the owner and other students.  The class had to be rescheduled for a later date.

The ‘Grandparents Day Brunch’ was the Juniors first fundraiser. In celebration of National Grandparents Day in September at the start of the school year, the Juniors planned a Sunday Brunch in which the community could invite their grandparents, aunts, uncles and parents to a three course meal at the Crow’s Nest in Hackensack. Patrons could buy corsages and boutonnieres for their guests and have a complimentary announcement made to their loved ones. It was a wonderful and relaxing afternoon for all who attended and we raised a little over $300 for library programming.

The Juniors opened their Fall programming with the Third Annual Pizza Social & Film Forum, in which members and their guests could kick back and relax after the start of the school year and a long week of testing. Over twenty members and their guests joined in a quick meeting to go over Fall programming and indulged in a dessert table laden with Halloween cookies, brownies and cupcakes and in honor of traditional ‘trick or treating’, bowls of Halloween candy. This was followed by our first film in our Halloween horror retrospect, Disney films ‘Watcher in the Woods’, then followed by a pizza lunch and then showed our second film, a hit on the independent circuit in New York, Tobe Hooper’s ‘Poltergeist’.

Another Halloween event the Juniors planned in partnership with Research Librarian Melissa Singlevich was our first in a new event called, “The Family Lecture Series” featuring Professor Angus Gillespie of Rutgers University and his talk on the ‘Legend of the Jersey Devil’. Professor Gillespie captivated the audience with the story of the Leeds family and how the legend was born. Professor Gillespie engaged the audience, young and old, on his research into the subject and followed it up with a slide show and a Q & A.

Our last planned event, the holiday toy drive and family event, ‘Teens, Tots & Toys’, had to be cancelled for scheduling reasons. It will be looked into for next year.

“For a $5.00 membership, the Junior Friends offers a lot,” said Chairman Watrel. “It offers two private events each year, one in the Summer and one in the Fall, for members and their guests to enjoy good food and enjoy retrospect’s with independent, classic and new films organized around the event to not just watch a film, but understand what perspective the directors and actors had tried to bring to the film as well. Some of the classic and independent films we have shown in the past are the popular teen film ‘Adventures of Babysitting’, the original ‘Bad News Bears’, the Academy Awarding winning ‘Hugo’ and much noted preteen independent classic, ‘Little Manhattan’. It’s a chance for members and their guests to see movies that they might not ordinarily see in the theaters and in the case of the big “Freaky Friday” event last year, get to meet the author and hear her take on the movies as well.”

The Juniors Friends membership card offers many benefits. It includes the not just our private movie nights, but participation in the Friends ‘Merchants Program’, with discounts in over 40 merchants in Hasbrouck Heights and Woodridge, while supporting our local business people, notices of all our special events, a copy of the Friends newsletter and the chance to support and raise money for our library’s programming. Each Junior member gets their own card with their name printed on it.  The Juniors membership is not limited to Hasbrouck Heights residents and is open to all card carrying library patrons from ages 4-17 years of age.

“The Junior Friends of the Library membership tries to offer something for all members and has tailored events to our diverse age groups,” said Chairman Watrel. “Our big goal was trying to get our junior Junior members from ages 4 to 12 to participate more all while trying to get the whole family involved with the Juniors. We are looking forward to even more exciting events in the coming year and look forward to welcoming members back and looking for new ones who want to get involved. No program can be successful without the participation of many people and the Juniors want to thank the Friends Executive Board and membership for all their assistance on the events and an especially a big ‘thank you’ to the entire staff of the Hasbrouck Heights Library, who with their assistance, make all our programming possible. We also wanted to thank our merchants for their support of many of the events, especially Bensi’s Restaurant, Lovey’s Pizzeria, McDonalds, IHOP, Mill’s Bakery, Roma Pizza, Tuscany Touch Restaurant, Heights Pizzeria, Fisher’s Café and K & J Ice Cream. Hats off to everyone and see you next year! Happy Holidays to everyone.”