Ransom Library will celebrate 20 straight years of sneetches, Cats in Hats, Things 1 and 2, the Lorax and more as it invites everyone to enjoy the 20th annual Dr. Seuss Night on Tuesday, March 7.
The Friends of the Library group has been there all 20 years, putting on the event.
Library friend Virginia Paganelli said the group was interested in how the effort had started.
“At our January meeting, no one could remember when it started,” she said. “I joined the friends in 2001-02 and it was just what we do in March, Dr. Seuss Night.”
She used the library’s archives of the Union Enterprise to find that it did begin on March 2, 1998, and was part of a nationwide effort that many libraries joined to promote reading.
“There was a picture, an announcement and the library director in a cat in the hat costume,” Paganelli said.
The late Wilsona Christlieb was then president of the Friends, she said, and the group had been involved from the beginning.
As one would expect, the Friends have gotten more expert over the decades.
“It has changed a little,” Paganelli said. “We didn’t used to give out tickets.
“We do that in four colors now, so we can group the children in roughly equal-sized groups.
“There’s a balloon in your ticket color and we have people we refer to as wranglers—it is what they do—who pick up the balloons and lead the children to the next station.”
Three or four Friends will be on hand the morning of March 7 to fill the bags each child will get to take home with a cookie (this year with a 20 on it) and a bookmark. Another four or five volunteers will distribute tickets and “wrangle.”
This year will feature a change from the usual four reading stations to two reading stations and two activity stations.
Now, kids can play Dr. Seuss Bingo—which children’s librarian Erin Marsh found—and then make their own sneetch stars.
Morrie Edwards and Stacy Levine will work one reading station (one reads, the second shows off pictures) and Mayor Richard Brooks and city manager Erik Wilson will work the second.
The Cat in the Hat, Thing 1, Thing 2 and The Grinch will all be in attendance. The Friends have been buying more costumes for the event over the years and the library now has one of its own.
The event has to be ready for many changes on the fly, given its early March date.
“We’ve had 150 to 200 people,” Paganelli said. “It’s always very dependent on the weather.
“We’ll plan cookies for 200, though.”
Contact Dan Pepper at dpepper@allegannews.com or at (269) 673-5534 or (269) 685-9571.
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