HPU library hosts Easter egg hunt and story time for faculty children

By Ryan, April 11, 2016

By Alexis Ancel  // News Editor

As much of the student body was packing up to go home for Easter, two High Point University faculty and their children were already beginning their Easter festivities on campus. Following last year’s success, two HPU librarians collaborated to host an Easter egg hunt and story time for faculty children.
“It was a great turnout this year and all the kids got a basket full of eggs,” said Leanne Jernigan, Wanek Center Learning Commons librarian.
This is the second year this event was held for Easter, but Jernigan along with School of Education librarian, Alex Frey, have been holding story time events coinciding with various holidays for the past two years.
The idea for the events came about when the library’s children’s collection was moved from the bottom floor of Smith Library into the School of Education Resource Center when the School of Education first opened back in 2012. The books were moved so that education students and faculty had easier access to these children’s books, but in doing so it became less convenient for the rest of HPU’s faculty and staff to check out the books for their own kids. To remedy this, Jernigan came up with the idea to host a story time event in the collection’s new location with milk and cookies for children of faculty.
“Most did not know the collection had moved to the School of Education,” Jernigan said. “I wanted to raise awareness of this, show them the new space, and once again bring this patron group into the library.”
The first event in the fall of 2014 hosted a fairly small group of children and parents, but participation has been steadily increasing with each event. Three more events followed, including a “Haunted Library,” “Thanksgiving Stories” and “Fireside Stories” that tied in with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively.
Both the Halloween and Easter story time events were very popular amongst children and faculty, and Jernigan and Frey plan to make both annual. “The kids come in costume, which is a lot of fun, and we eat candy and read scary stories,” Jernigan said of the “Haunted Library” event. “This year I plan to do a costume contest as well.”
This year, roughly 40 people total including around 15 children participated in the Easter egg hunt, a significant increase from its previous year. Children were divided into two groups based on age to hunt for eggs throughout the School of Education Resource Center lobby and lawn. Roughly 300 eggs were hidden including one golden egg for each group, the finder of which received the winning gift basket.
Following the hunt, Jernigan read Easter themed stories, which were chosen by the children who gathered the most eggs, to all of the children out on the lawn by the Resource Center. “The Egg Hunt was a lot of fun, and story time was a good way to wind down,” Jernigan said.
The evening finished with kids and parents checking out books together from the children’s collection previously moved to the School of Education.
“I’d like faculty, staff, and students with little ones in their lives to know about the 6,000 plus children’s books we have available for checkout at the SOE Resource Center,” said Jernigan. “You can use your passport to check out just like at the main library. You don’t have to be an education major.”