The Longmont Public Library is giving teens the opportunity to give back to their community and the library by creating programs, book displays and writing book reviews while learning new skills and gaining experience.
Middle school and high school-aged teens are invited to virtually volunteer for the Teen Library Committee for the winter and spring programs.
“When we moved online because of COVID this year, we decided to take the opportunity to refresh the volunteer program in the process,” said Children’s and Teen’s Librarian David Kling.
The most recent session had even more volunteers than any of the library’s previous teen committees, with a total of 29 volunteers, Kling said. Those volunteers helped create the virtual Halloween parade, Crafternoon kits, posters for the Out Teen section and wrote book reviews.
“We wanted to give the teens the opportunity to tackle bigger projects and really influence some of our programming decisions at the library in a meaningful way,” Kling said. “Even during the pandemic, so many teens are happy to work to better their community.”
Bella Zebolsky, 17, a high school senior has been volunteering at the library, reshelving books and helping with the event group.
“I love being able to make events at the library that I know others around my age will love,” Zebolsky said, “We have created a pen pal program and it’s going to be amazing because the senior citizens at Hover Manor and maybe other library kids in other states can write to one another.”
A freshman and an artist, Rose Feitler, 14, volunteered during the last session. Although most of the volunteering experience has been through Zoom and email, Feitler had the opportunity to create a poster featuring a reading octopus inspired by a favorite book, “Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness,” by Peter Godfrey-Smith.
High school freshman and an artist, Rose Feitler, 14, created this poster depicting "Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness" while serving on the Longmont Public Library's teen committee. Courtesy photoThe pandemic has taught the library to adapt in uncertain times and all teen committee meetings will be held remotely.
“The biggest challenge with running the program virtually has been communication. It's all about finding a balance between helping teens bring their vision to life and giving them space to collaborate without interference,” Kling said. “I think we all learned a lot from our first session, and next year will be even better.”
Fortunately, the library has not had much trouble finding volunteers, even during the pandemic.
Zebolsky and Feitler will be volunteering with the library for the winter and spring session.
“Future students should be open to trying new things while volunteering but most importantly understand they don’t have to do everything perfect,” Feitler said, “because being a student means you are learning and part of learning is making mistakes; this applies to all of life.”
Kling said, “I like to think it shows how awesome the library is that teens think volunteering with us is a good way to better the community.”
To participate on the committee, teens must fill out volunteer applications that will be available online beginning at 10 a.m. Monday. Applications are due by 5 p.m. Jan. 18.
According to the library’s volunteer page, students who are chosen to participate will be required to attend a remote orientation session.
The program will meet on the fourth Monday of every month beginning on Jan. 25, and will run through April.
