‘Build a Better World’

ONEIDA » Oneida Public Library’s Summer Reading Program will get underway in early July with varied programs and events expressing this year’s theme of “Build a Better World,” including workshops in theater and robotics requiring registration and public events like the Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre’s latest production.

Starting Monday, July 10, Youth Services Coordinator Megan Gillander will hold a weekly series of four programs for elementaryschool students that aims through play and group activities to “build a better world through kindness.”

Participants will be assembling “You Matter Bags” on July 10 to be handed out to individuals in need of a boost in life. On July 17, they will work together to construct a little free library, a small but decorative book depository set out in the community at which anyone can take out a book and return that book or replace it with another.

The “Build a Better World” program will be held on Mondays at 10 a.m., July 10, 17, 24 and 31. Registration is required.

Also starting Monday, July 10, is the OPL Children’s Summer

Theater workshop “Acting with Your Voice,” under the direction of Tom Lemery. Held Monday through Friday, July 1014, from 1-3 p.m., the oneweek workshop will offer children in grades 3-8 instruction in voice expression, poise, group collaboration and acting.

On Friday, July 14 at 5 p.m., the students perform “The Magic Hat: The OPL Kids Radio Show” for family and friends. The show, designed by Lemery, will have something for every young actor to do, from reading classic children’s stories to doing comic skits to singing commercials to producing weird sound effects.

The voice-acting workshop is limited to 18 children. Registration beforehand is required.

The Little Red Wagon will return Fridays at 10 a.m., July 7-28. Gillander will lead preschoolers out of doors, weather permitting, for storytelling, songs and games. No registration is required.

For teens in grades 9-12, the OPL’s SRP offers the Teen Coffee House on Thursdays, July 6-27, at 11 a.m. Using online videos from Technology, Education and Design (TED) Talks, Gillander will guide discussions on current teen topics involving online games, social media and “fake news.” Registration is not required.

The first SRP special event is an interactive program called “Samantha, an American Girl Suffragette,” utilizing American Girl dolls and a specially constructed doll house. The program was created by Teresa Wood, owner of History Houses in Rochester, as part of the OPL’s 2017 Centennial Celebration of Women’s Suffrage in New York State.

Set for Wednesday, July 19, at 3 p.m. in the library, the program will follow Samantha and other American Girl and Boy dolls to a Suffragette’s meeting in Central Park in New York City in the early 20th century. There, Samantha becomes impressed by the speakers agitating for a woman’s right to vote.

Participants are invited to bring their own dolls. The free program is made possible by an Action Grant from Humanities New York.

On Monday, July 31, at 11 a.m., the Merry-GoRound Youth Theatre will perform its latest production “Huff and Puff: A Pig Tale.” In a new adaptation of the classic fable, The Three Little Pigs set out to build their houses and meet several fairytale characters such as Rapunzel and Goldilocks, who have an opinion about “building the better house.”

The Lego Robotics Workshop scheduled for Aug. 7-11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. is an intensive intro- duction to the potential of robotics to aid humankind and improve the quality of life globally. In the workshop, up to 12 middleschool students will build electronically controlled robots with Legos and power packs under the supervision of Ralph Kohler Jr., and Tandy Paugh from the U.S. Air Force Laboratory in Rome.

The Lego Robotics Workshop, now in its fifth year at the OPL, is an edition of the First Lego League, a nationwide program sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Laboratory to promote the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by young people.

Registration is required.

The Summer Reading Program reaches its climax with the celestial event of the year on the evening of Aug. 21. The OPL invites community members of all ages to witness the solar eclipse at a Picnic under the Eclipse on the grounds of the new Oneida Library site on Main Street.

The solar eclipse starts at 5:18 p.m. in Oneida and reaches its “maximum obscuration” (67.11 percent) at 6:38 p.m. Starting at 4 p.m., the community is invited to enjoy a picnic and entertainment with the elliptical juggling of the Gravitational Bull duo, Dave and Kyle Fultz from Tonawanda. Plus, children can get into the spirit of the event with spacethemed face painting done by Francesca Nishimoto.

For the main event, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has donated to the OPL a NASA@My Library Eclipse Kit, which comes with hundreds of eclipse-viewing glasses that will allow spectators to view the eclipse safely. If the day of the eclipse is cloud covered, the OPL will host NASA’s live streaming of the event at 220 Broad St.

To register children for SRP programs or for more information, stop by the Oneida Library, 220 Broad St., or call (315) 363-3050.

The Lego Robotics Workshop, now in its fifth year at the OPL, is an edition of the First Lego League, a nationwide program sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Laboratory to promote the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by young people.