Festival of Giving

Many of us have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season!  Our annual Festival of Giving  at the Matawan-Aberdeen Public Library has begun and this year all of the items we collect will be donated to local organizations/groups for Sandy relief.  Here are some of the things going on:

Mitten Tree

In the spirit of giving, the Children’s Room will have a Mitten Tree again this year.  We invite patrons to donate new, unused mittens, gloves, hats or scarves to be to given to children and adults in need. There will be a box to collect these winter items from Nov. 24th-Dec.12th.

Tweens: Make a Gift (after hours event!)                                                                              

For students in grades 4-6:  Friday, November 30th @ 6:30PM

We’ll be making fleece scarves. Each tween can make two– one will be    donated to the library’s Mitten Tree and the other can be given as a gift. We’ll also have some other fun crafts on hand! Registration is required.

Food for Fines: December 1-31 

Once again we will be accepting non-perishable food items and toiletries in lieu of library fines and you can also get a free library card replacement by bringing in non-perishable food items and toiletries. (Sorry, these donations do not cover lost or damaged materials.) Non-perishable food items include canned goods, boxed pasta, etc. and should not be past their expiration date. Toiletries include laundry detergent,  toothpaste, deodorant, diapers, etc. All of these items will be  donated to the Matawan Food Pantry. 

Rebuild Memorial School’s Library

The Matawan/Aberdeen Chapter of Hadassah, is collecting gently used or new books to restore/refill the elementary school library at Memorial School in Union Beach that Sandy destroyed.  The school serves K-8 students. A box to collect these books will be set up by the Reference Desk.

 

 

 

Woman’s Club Giving Tree

The Women's Club of Matawan will be displaying their giving tree in the library again this year.  Library patrons are invited to take an ornament in exchange for purchasing a book that will be added to the Clinton Street after-school program's library.

Teen Make a Gift: After hours Community Service Event

For students in grades 6 & up; Friday, Dec. 7th: 6:30-8PM                             

Come by the library and help make gift jars that will be donated to the Matawan Food Pantry. We’ll be making “M&M Cookies” and “Friendship Soup.”   Time spent making the jars qualifies for community service.  Permission slip and registration are required and are available at: www.matawanaberdeenlibrary.com.      

                                       

Drop-In Craft

Wednesday, December 12th; 10AM-12PM & 3:30-5PM

All ages welcome; no registration required! Stop by the library to make a fun craft to take home. For each child that attends this program, the library will purchase a winter item to donate to the Mitten Tree in the Children’s Room. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vehicle Day Round-Up!

Vehicle Day was a huge success! A special thanks goes out to the Matawan Police Department, the Matawan Fire Department, the Matawan Department of Public Works, the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office and the Aberdeen Police Department. Over 150 kids, teens and adults explored vehicles that were parked on Park Avenue. Ms. Linda held vehicle storytimes on the hour and gave out special construction hats for children to wear that read "Readers at work!" If you missed Vehicle Day, check out the pictures below!

Children explore a Matawan police car

A fire engine from Matawan's Washington Engine Co.

Street sweeper, courtesy of the Matawan Department of Public Works! The part on top is what holds all of the stuff the street sweeper sweeps up!

Colin and Ryan had a great time exploring an Aberdeen police car!

Miss Chrissie joined in the fun on the street sweeper!

MAPL staff member, Lynne, gets in the Monmouth County Sheriff Office's hummer!

Vehicle day this Saturday!

Looking for something to do this Saturday, October 20th? Come on down to the library for Vehicle Day from 11AM-2PM! We’ll be closing off Park Avenue and parking (no pun intended!) a street sweeper, a fire truck and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office hummer! Kids and grownups can come explore the vehicles and learn one each one does. We’ll also be having vehicle storytimes on the hour @ 11AM, 12PM, and 1PM.  The Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office will also offer youth identification cards while they are here. Hope to see you all this Saturday!

Nominate MAPL!

LEGO^® DUPLO^® and the Association for Library Services To Children (ALSC) have joined hands to celebrate and support local libraries. The most nominated library in the "Read! Build! Play!" project receives $5,000 for books and supplies. The top 200 libraries receive a special LEGO DUPLO Read! Build! Play! toolkit chock full of cutting edge, early literacy programming that combines preschool books with a versatile collection of DUPLO bricks.

We are currently in the top 200! Help us stay there by nominating the Matawan-Aberdeen Public Library once a day! Just visit the link below and select New Jersey---> Matawan---> Matawan-Aberdeen Public Library.  It's just that simple! Thank you in advance for nominating your local library!

http://www.readbuildplay.com/index.cfm

Finisher's Line

This year we're doing something a little different to celebrate the last day of Summer Reading. We'll be opening up the library after-hours for a special concert with Sting Ray who will present "Beatles & Bubblebum"- music from the 60's & 70's along with some trivia!  We'll have some last chance prizes for kids, teens and adults, too! Doors open @ 6:30 and the concert starts @ 7PM.

And...if you still have some books to check in for the weekly raffles, the kids' prizes will be drawn on Friday, August 10th some time around 6PM.  So you'll want to make sure you get all of your books checked in before then. The teens and adult weekly raffles will be drawn on Monday, August 13th after 1PM.

Thanks to everyone for making our summer reading program a success!

We're Halfway There....

This Friday, July 13th marks the halfway point of our summer reading club! We'll be having a special after-hours event to celebrate getting to the the halfway mark. There will be fortune telling, bubble painting, balloon hats, as well as ice cream provided by the Friends of the Library! There will also be some extra raffle prizes. Come by any time between 6:30-8:30 to participate (doors will not open until 6:30.)

Summer Reading has begun!

We kicked off our summer reading club on Saturday June 16th with magic shows, a caricature artist, balloon animals, face painting, crafts, and much more! Everyone had a great time! We have over 300 children registered for our summer reading club so far!

Here's how the summer reading club works:  Children ages 0 thru entering 5th grade should sign up in the Children's room. You'll receive a reading log to keep track of the books you read with child or the books that they read on their own. Bring it in once a week and we'll check off the books you've read and get two raffle tickets to enter into weekly prizes. Our first raffle will be drawn Monday, June 25th after 1PM. Each person that registers (teens and adults, too) for the summer reading club receives a tote bag, courtesy of the Friends of the Matawan-Aberdeen Public Library.

We also have a variety of activities for children and teens this summer. Check out our online calendar! Please note that most programs require registration (which is separate than registering for the summer reading club.)

And...if you are looking for books on your child's school summer reading list, we've got an entire section in the Children's room dedicated to the Matawan-Aberdeen school summer reading list. (We do not have the lists to distribute, but you can print them out or photocopy them here.)