Can you tell me how to get to…Sesame Street?

Library patrons and their children got together to celebrate the remodeling of the library and the creation of the Sesame Street children’s room with a Sesame Street-themed party Friday afternoon.

“That’s what our kids grew up on,” said Leslie Heppe, a member of Friends of the Mineral County Library, when asked why they chose Sesame Street as the theme for the new children’s room.

More than 20 children of all ages packed into the Mineral County Library for a story reading from Connie Hendrickson. Hendrickson picked from several different short Sesame Street books to entertain the crowd of youngsters.

Then they split into two different groups. One group of children decorated sugar cookies with Sesame Street-colored icing. The cookies were provided by Florence Evans. The other group stayed in the children’s room and put their hand-prints on the wall in white paint to finalize the decoration of the library’s children’s room.

Birdy Farmer, Michelle Parkin, Tammi Hanson and Donna Chambers all volunteered to help organize the children and clean them off after making cookies and painting the wall.

“This was wonderful,” local parent Stacy Crabb said. “My daughters and I make weekly trips here so it was really exciting to get to come and be a part of all this. Now they get to come each week and they can see their hands on the wall.”

Crabb, who was born and raised in Superior, and her two daughters, 3-year-old Lanie and 6-month-old Josie, visit the library every week. Crabb said it is a great place to spend time with her daughters.

She added that Josie has been coming to the library since she was one week old.

Heppe said that the Sesame Street theme was chosen not only because it appeals to the younger children, but also because 90 percent of the sales price of the Sesame Street decorations that were purchased to remodel the room go to organizations that promote worldwide literacy.

The Friends of the Mineral County Library finished off the decorations with a “signed” picture of Big Bird that hangs above the doorway to the children’s room. Heppe is happy with the change.

“It was just dark and ugly and everybody was smashed in there so we thought, we need a whole new ball game here,” Heppe said.

The children’s room used to be a computer room. Heppe said that they spent a lot of time thinking about how people use the library when they remodeled it and decided that the computers needed to be in a different place.

Now, with the new decorations and layout for the library, Heppe said she thinks it is a much more inviting and friendly place to be.

“We have parents that bring their little ones in here to read a book while they go check out a book or read a newspaper in our lounge, so now it’s comfortable for everybody,” Heppe said.

Heppe said that the entire library remodeling process took over 200 hours of volunteer labor and they just finished up the children’s room last month.

Wednesday, the library will be holding a panel discussion on equality at the Superior High School Multipurpose Room at 7 p.m. On Oct. 11 they will be holding a book sale in front of Sal’s Surplus in Superior from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Oct. 22 at 4 p.m. they will have a pumpkin decorating contest for local children that will be judged by Mineral County Commissioner Candidates Duane Simons and Curtis Cochran.

“We’ve always got something going on,” said Heppe.