Girl Scout Expo

Take a thousand or so Girl Scouts, put them in one building, and what do you have?

FUN...at the Fresno Girl Scout Cookie Expo!

 

The Fresno County Public Library booth at the Cookie Expo was a busy place January 23rd at the Fresno Fairgrounds. Information about library resources, craft activities, and making new library cards were the order of the day.

 

Even with cookie tasting, inflatable obstacle courses, Star Wars Stormtroopers, Kopi Sotiropoulos, and other displays to get their attention, hundreds of Girl Scouts, leaders, and families from several counties of the Valley visited the FCPL booth. Eric Dunnicliff, Rita Leung, and WoW! staffers Joanna Chase and Terrance Mc Arthur helped Scouts with the craft and answered questions about library services.

 





Eric and Joanna,
waiting for the Expo to start.



Here come the Girl Scouts!



 







 

 

 

Bentley going to meet

his fans.

Bentley, the Library's popular mascot, made an appearance, greeting fans and posing for pictures. In the booth, Terrance told people about e-books and downloadable movies, Zinio online magazines, the Freegal music service, and Beanstack. All these FREE services excited leaders and parents, who carried off flyers and bookmarks filled with information.



The Girl Scouts decorated cut-out leaves with what they liked most about the library. more than 150 participated. The leaves will be part of a display at the Central Library in February. For helping to create the display, each Girl Scout received a patch with Bentley's picture stitched into it.







Girl Scout-decorated leaves,
ready for display at the Central Library.



The Library Patch for Girl Scouts,
Bentley-approved.

It was a lively event, with lots to see and do. Next to the FCPL booth, a radio station challenged people to hit a golf ball into a putting cup. Costumed members of the 501st (the local Star Wars re-enactors chapter) swung light sabers as onlookers oohed and ahhed.




   

Rita putts at the
booth next door.

Terrance learns a lesson:
never jostle a Jedi.

It was a good day for Girl Scouts, families, cookies, fun, and learning about the library. 

 



Hmong New Year Celebration and WoW! Is There

Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, thousands gather at the Big Fresno Fairgrounds for the Hmong International New Year Celebration.

A festival of music, dancing, food, history, a beauty pageant, and meeting old friends and making new ones, it’s a great place to promote library services.

 

The Fresno County Public Library is represented with a booth near the outdoor stage, and the WoW! (WithOut Walls) Library is part of it, making library cards.

 
The Hmong people of Laos were recruited by Americans during the Vietnam War. After the war, they were persecuted by the ruling regime. Many escaped and became refugees. Today, the San Joaquin Valley is home to the second-largest concentration of Hmong outside of Southeast Asia, and the Hmong New Year celebration in Fresno is the largest in the world.

 

Festivities began the day after Christmas, with Terrance Mc Arthur of WoW!, Gaoneng Lee, and Vincent Petrelli representing the FCPL. Terrance brought the laptop, hotspot, and barcode reader needed for card-making. Vincent had lightning-fast fingers for entering application data. Gaoneng had the Hmong language skills to explain library services to the more than 140 people who stopped at the booth to talk on that day. WoW! librarians and other library personnel will be at the fairgrounds to provide services during the celebration. 

One of the features of the 2016 celebration is a series of exhibits on the Hmong culture, its part in the CIA-sponsored war, the migration to the USA, and how the people have survived and thrived in a new land over the past 40 years.

 If you go to the 2016 Hmong New Year Celebration, look for the FCPL booth at the north end of the fairgrounds, west of the main stage. We hope to see you there!