New imaginative play area at Crown Point location
In 2018, the Crown Point Community Library received a generous donation from the Birdzell Family in memory of local educator, Sharon Greening. The memorial gift was designated to assist with the development and enhancement of the Library’s early reading programming and services. The Library had been carefully planning how to utilize the donation to foster early literacy development in both the Crown Point and Winfield communities.
In 2019, in addition to renaming the Crown Point location’s Children’s Program room in Greening’s honor, a portion of the donation was used to purchase a large number of educational materials to support sensory programming for all children, but especially for children with special needs. On January 24, 2020, the Library introduced a new imaginative play area in the Children’s Library located at the Crown Point location. The area, designed to have themes that will switch out periodically, will provide an ever-changing learning experience for community children. Some of the planned themes include a grocery store, veterinarian office, diner, farmer’s market, post office, science lab, ice cream parlor, bakery, hot dog stand, and pizza shop. The imaginative play materials will also travel to the Winfield Branch Library for use in their imagination play area. The Library’s new imaginative play area will become another reason why the Library has become a destination for both learning and fun.
This new area will support the American Library Association and Public Library Association’s “Every Child Ready to Read” program (ECRR) practices, which include talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing. The research-based series of practices help young children develop essential literacy skills that will help them get ready to read and start on the right path to school readiness and future success.
The library’s storytime events and early literacy programs are derived from ECRR practices. The library has always been a destination where children and families can come to learn and play together and its mission seeks to offer programs and opportunities for parents and children to interact while providing parents and caregivers resources in supporting the literacy development of their children.
The Library is thankful for the generous donations from community members and organizations. For more information on how to make a donation to the Library please contact Laura Clemons at (219) 306-4599 or email lclemons@crownpointlibrary.org.
