Original Schedule
4:00 pm – 12:00 am – Teen Lock-in with Shelly, Sara, and Darrilynn
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Since the library is still open we work on setting up the program room and cutting out names for the ice breaker. Once the library employees close and leave, the three of us go about taping up fake pizzas (for scavenger hunt) and names (for ice breaker) around the library. This takes only a few minutes. Darrilynn waits at the door for teens to arrive and lets them in. We have 24 teens of the 30 that registered, this is not normal but probably because it is summer other events might have come up. The teens have to wait in the program room so has to not get a head start on the ice breaker or scavenger hunt.
5:30 pm – 6:15 pm
Pizza arrives early, so while Darrilynn waits to see if anyone else comes ( no one else shows) Shelly and I let the teens eat pizza. Sara has to adjust the schedule because pizza arrived early and we waited longer than expected for teens to show up.
Left to Right: Shelly, Sara, Darrilynn, and myself. Agenda Look! They had to find me!6:15 pm – 7:30 pm
The agenda changed just a bit to put us back on schedule. So, after pizza the teens do the ice breaker. They are divided into teams (that Sara put together so that friends were split up to get to know other people) and each team had a color and 6-7 colored names to find that were hung around the library. Off they go racing to find their colors and be the first ones to finish.
After the ice breaker, they did the scavenger hunt, in which they had to look things up on the catalogs, and see the four of us and complete our tasks. Since this was my first one, I did a pretty simple task: the human knot. They have to stand in a circle shoulder to shoulder and grab to different hands across from themselves. Then untangle, without letting go of their hands. This was pretty easy for them since they were some pretty small groups. While I did not get any pictures of my task, I got some pictures of Shelly’s relay. Where they had to pick a card and then go grab whatever item was written on the card from the teen section, so a magazine, a playaway, a graphic novel, etc. It was pretty clever and helped them learn more about the teen section. That is why Sara does the Scavenger hunt, to help back the program by saying that the teens are learning about how to use the library and everything it offers. Sara does a great job with the Scavenger Hunt though, and it is very informative for the teens.
Scan of Scavenger Hunt
Waiting to get started. Getting into groups for the ice breaker. The rare SquidPope. Scavenger Hunt Doing Shelly’s Relay. Waiting to do Shelly’s relay. Playing games.7:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Blindfolded Dodge ball, similar to the Fun in the Sun one, but with soft balls and not water balls. This is so much fun to watch and the teens have so much fun playing it. There is lots of laughter and funny moments with partners telling their blind to duck or dodge.
Preparing for Battle!8:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Gaming, video and board games are out for the teens to relax and take a break. Pipopop makes another appearance, apparently one of the Johnson brothers told people they had to beat him at it. It started giving us librarians a headache, so someone else was asked to take over and pick a different song. Shelly runs to get Starbucks for us to make it through the evening. Before the hour is over two people approach Sara asking when Flashlight Tag was going to start.
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Flashlight tag, pretty much the only reason they come. I am kidding, but it is the reason they come for lock-in. Just about everyone wants to be it. Sara draws two names for each round, they have three rounds total. This was the best part of the night. Watching these teens run around and do the craziest things is so much fun. They had so much fun and so did we. Gavin, Sam and Riley are featured a lot in these photos because they are some of the most outgoing teens of the group. Riley, deemed SquidPope at some point during the evening, wears (appropriately) a Squid hat the entire evening it (surprisingly) does not help him hide. But, as I was coming out of the staff area and no one was around I hear “SquidPope welcomes you” and I looked around and saw no one, finally after looking under the tables- there is SquidPope and a friend. It was one of the funniest things I had seen all night. They were never found and it was quite impressive.
He thought hiding behind this table would work… and he was right. For a minute, it did. Behind this door is Gavin, with his hand in front of his face. If he cannot see them they cannot see him. Several teens tried hiding behind this door. It did not work. Gavin on the left and Sam on the right posing for Darrilynn and I had to get a picture as well! Eric building a deer while in prison during Flashlight Tag. Sam making a burial for Elephant while in prison. Hard for these troublemakers.10:00 pm – 10:40 pm
Time to rest and cool down as to not stink up the library too much with sweaty teens. We head back to the program room to do some karaoke and more gaming. Shelly and Darrilynn do a run through of the library to make sure all of the pizza markers and names were found. A group of guys start karaoke off with “It’s raining men”, these guys are too funny. They seem to be having a great time and are really comfortable in the library. I help Darrilynn clean up empty pizza boxes and wash dishes.
10:40 pm – 10:50 pm
Clean-up of the room begins, it goes pretty quickly because the teens help throw trash away and wipe down tables.
10:50 pm – 11:25 pm
Murder in the Library, another lock-in favorite, I am told. The teens love this game, I think they love it more when they are the murderer. Three rounds are played, I did not get any pictures of this, because they all moved in and out the stacks a lot, but one of the teens did a great job and killed about half the group before they figured out who the murderer was. It was fun to watch them play. Shelly and I headed back early to get the prize boxes out for the winners to get an item from.
11:25 pm – 12:00 am
Winners are announced, prizes are picked and teens gather their stuff to go home. Darrilynn and Sara accompany them to the door to make sure they go home with the right people. Stacy and I clean up the room and make sure lights are off and doors are locked.
Overall, the night went really smoothly except for the rocky start. Sara had to make schedule changes because the number of kids affected the number of teams and such.
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