Teen volunteers offer a youthful perspective at Bella Vista library

BELLA VISTA — Alexandra Newman, children and youth services manager at the Bella Vista Public Library, recently discussed the Teen Advisory Board at the library.

She said the board welcomes teens in high school to volunteer at the library, and their time counts as volunteer hours they can put on their college applications. Volunteers help staff make decisions on teen activities, do community projects, help with summer reading programs and help with all kinds of programs the library puts on, she said. They also help with Friends of the Library events.

The board usually has seven members, each with a specific board position, and elections are held every two years, Newman said. Positions on the board include president, vice president, secretary, publicity chair, historian, event coordinator and design chair. The board meets once a month.

Newman said the board helps the library staff plan teen nights, which are held the first Friday night of each month.

“Them being on board and helping staff ensures we’re targeting their age group. Because we’re older, we could sometimes choose the wrong thing,” she said. “They make it so we’re providing what teens want in the library.”

Teen nights include games, activities and sometimes crafts, she said. The board members are very creative, she said, and for the last teen night they had the idea to hold a dinner party.

The teens all came dressed up, and there were donated pizzas and etiquette challenges and a big dinner table in the community room, she said.

Newman added the library closes early at 4 p.m. on Fridays, which also allows the facility to be closed for teen nights.

“It allows us to have a safe place for teens. Parents can drop them off and feel confident they’ll be safe,” she said.

The Teen Advisory Board has also been working over the past year on a teen book club, which is called Read Between the Lines, she said. It started Feb. 21, and it is a monthly meeting led by teens with staff supervision, she said.

It is a very broad book club that covers all sorts of genres. The board votes on what books they want to read every month. Friends of the Library has funded the project in part by providing a couple of copies of each book, Newman said.

The Teen Advisory Board has also worked on community-based projects in the past by putting in little libraries at Metfield Pavilion Park and Lake Avalon Beach, and they fill them with donations that come into the library, Newman said. This year they will repaint the one at Metfield Pavilion Park.

She also said they are looking for another community project and are considering something to do with the biking community in Bella Vista.

“We have such a great group of [teens] it gives me hope for our future generation,” Newman said. “They have such great ideas for Bella Vista.”

(Submitted Photo) Members of the Bella Vista Public Library’s Teen Advisory Board include Cora (front row, from left), historian; Jade, publicity chair; Savanna, event coordinator; Susanna (back row, from left), president; Mercury, secretary; Benjamin, vice president and Selah (not pictured), design chair.