Adults

Crazy Cat People Party

Nov 18, 2015

$1-50

Byline

Sarah Colombo, Head of Adult Services, Livingston (La.) Parish Library

This program was designed to be a fun, creative event where cat lovers could get together, share stories and socialize. The program involved watching cat videos, sharing funny cat photos and stories, making cat brooches or magnets, decorating Oreos to look like cats, and listening to a presentation from a local cat shelter.

Advanced Planning

With the Crazy Cat Party, we sought to create a fun space for adult patrons to share their interests and get creative. The program was created by our programming assistant, who is herself a cat lover and had noticed a library patron who frequently attends programs wearing a wacky cat sweater. We began planning the program two months in advance.

The head of adult services contacted Project Purr to ask if they wanted to be involved. We initially wanted to accept donations for the shelter at the event, but Project Purr was so excited about the program that they offered to come out and bring cats.

Our programming assistant and head of adult services collaborated to come up with a list of activities, which included:

painting polymer clay cat pins or magnets to look like your cat
cat trivia (Download the trivia presentation under Attachments at right.)
making black cat Oreos
sharing cat stories, photos and videos
a presentation from the local cat shelter

Marketing

We promoted the event through the library's newsletter; press releases to local magazines and newspapers; on the library's social media pages; on the library's website; and through fliers distributed at the branch.

Budgeting

The program cost approximately $35. Items purchased were a cat mold, polymer clay and brass pin backs for cat pins. We also bought mint chocolate M&Ms, semi-sweet chocolate chips, orange sprinkles and chocolate icing for cat cookies.

We already owned some of the other items we used, but other libraries might need to purchase them. These included magnets (for those who wanted to make cat magnets rather than pins), paintbrushes and paint.

There are endless cat crafts available online. If you wanted to cut costs, you could find a craft that used supplies you already had on hand.

Day-of-event Activity

One staff member, our programming assistant who planned the program, worked the event. Project Purr came the evening before to set up cat cages, rugs and toys to go inside the cat cages; banners; t-shirts; and plush kitties.

An hour before the program began, the room was set up with a laptop plugged into the projector for displaying the trivia game and sharing cat videos and pictures. We set up the tables in a U formation so patrons could see each other and interact during the program. We put out craft and snack supplies on separate tables to be gathered when that portion of the event began.

Program Execution

Twelve people attended this program. We didn't know when we planned the program how many people would come, but this was a good turnout for the branch where it was held, especially for adult programs in the evening. The patrons enjoyed themselves and said they wanted us to do the program again.

Advice

This is a very broad program with plenty of room for fun and new ideas. The sky's the limit when it comes to cat-related crafts, games and snacks.

Promoting the program is easier if you know your patrons, and make sure staff promote it heavily, especially to those they know are big cat fans. Having the cat shelter bring out cats was something we didn't initially plan, but it was a great added bonus to have real live cats at a party for cat lovers. We also found that the program had an intriguing enough name to get the local paper out, and they took some great photos.