Go Outside & Play Day!

Dec 28, 2019

Free

🆓

Byline

Sara Castle, Youth Librarian, Pinckney (Mich.) Community Public Library

Go Outside & Play Day was a launch event to promote our new Sport Port equipment-sharing collection of circulating youth sports equipment.

YMCA mobile programming, Y on the Fly, provided outside games, activities and snacks on the library lawn to celebrate and promote Sport Port.

Advanced Planning

We applied for the Sport Port funding and sporting equipment four months prior to the launch event, from Project Play: Southeast Michigan, with the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

We started planning the launch event one month prior to the event. We worked with leaders from Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan, the YMCA and Cub Scout Pack 395 to bring all of us together for the launch event.

The biggest challenge was that all of us work on different planning cycles so we were all scrambling to make sure we were all on the same page for the day of the event.

Marketing

We started promoting the program four weeks in advance by creating an event page on the library's Facebook. The local school superintendent shared it with families via email one week prior to the event. The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan contacted local newspapers and media.

Our promotion was very successful, and we saw a lot of social media attention.

Budgeting

There was no cost for the program other than my own time at the event.

Day-of-event Activity

Y on the Fly provided all of the set-up, as well as three of their own staff members and volunteers. The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan administrators were on hand to answer questions and network, as was the library director. I was the only other library staff member to attend to answer questions and participate in activities.

Unfortunately, the Y on the Fly van was about 10 minutes late to the event so the Cub Scout leader and I brought out the library’s new sports equipment for the families to play with until Y on the Fly arrived. Once Y on the Fly arrived their staff set up and directed the children in fun games on the library lawn.

If children did not want to participate there was sidewalk chalk, hula hoops and sports equipment for them to play with individually. Y on the Fly provided yogurt banana splits as a healthy snack for the children. Cub Scout pack 395 provided water for everyone.

Program Execution

Sixty-five people attended the program, which is great attendance for our community on a beautiful summer Saturday. We were very happy to see representatives from our local government offices, school administration, fire department and police department, as well as Cub Scout families.

We did achieve our goal of raising awareness of our new youth sport equipment collection. We received very positive feedback about how great it was to see families playing outside together at the library.

We have continued to work with community representatives from government as well as the public school to advertise and circulate our new youth sports equipment. We will continue to have monthly visits from Y on the Fly. And the community is aware and borrowing the youth sporting equipment!