HPL Children’s Room “Spectacular Toy Lending Library” – by Sherry Giancola
My grandchildren and myself cannot say enough about the fantastic Toy Lending Library. My grandchildren were 7 and 4 when we started using the TLL. We were first introduced to the room as something new and exciting is coming. Boy were the aides and the children's head librarian right!!! Then March 2020 was upon us bringing the pandemic so as we all know everything was shut down. The Toy Lending Library Room was officially opened July, 2020. This room was a dream of the Head Librarian of the Children's Department, Mrs. Russo. Our community is so very fortunate that she had this dream!!! With the pandemic upon us, families were searching for activities to do with their children. The Hubbard Children's Library had it!!! I have been attending the library with my children when they were young and now with my grandchildren. The TLL was exactly what was needed not just during the pandemic but forever!!! My grandchildren have gone into the TLL and have borrowed several of the toy boxes. How many toy boxes are available? Have to be well over 50 and growing as time goes on. They are adding to the TLL with more toys being ordered. An individual box would not just contain a toy, there would be books, and other related activities that the child or better yet the family could engage in!!! What an awesome idea!!! With families being out of work and not having money to spend on toys the City of Hubbard did not have to worry. Our Hubbard Public Library Children's Room provided families with an array of different toy box activities!!! Every week, the families of Hubbard can go to the local toy store aka, The Toy Lending Library, and take a different toy box home!!! My grandchildren could not wait to go inside the TLL room. The hardest decision, which toy box to sign out. A lot of the toys boxes are Melissa and Doug. They are outstanding products, durable, and educational!!!
The vision that Mrs. Russo and her fellow library aides have is just so amazing. They designed a room full of toy boxes so children and families could engage in activities to do as a family and or by the child themselves. The best part besides giving families the opportunity to do a family activity, it also gave parents, grandparents the opportunity to do something fun with their families and also something educational!!! So the room was just not a toy room, it had a purpose, to engage families and give them the opportunity to also do educational activities with their families. When families had to teach their children remotely from home during the pandemic the Hubbard Public Children's Room Toy Lending Library was right there helping us and offering families activities to do with their children for weeks and months to come!!! Can't get any better than that!!! The City of Hubbard is so very fortunate to have our library and especially the children's room. What a life saver our children's library is all year around!!! I started attending the children's library over 35 years ago. The children's library just keeps getting better and better!!! In all their activities, they plan, there is always many formats going into that one activity. It may be social, interacting, educational, physical, musical, mind stimulating and the best just having fun!!! My grandchildren would always go to the Toy Lending Library to sign out a toy box and I understood why after our first visit to the Toy Lending Library!!! My hat is off to these ladies again and again, they are awesome in so many ways!!! They have outdid themselves this time. But you know what they always do!!! We are blessed!!!
Sherry Giancola
March 2021