By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Wood County District Public Library will welcome a woman who helped generations of kids, including Library Director Michael Penrod, learn their letters as their next Foundation Series speaker.
Sonia Manzano, who portrayed Maria on “Sesame Street” for almost 40 years, will come to Bowling Green to speak on “From the South Bronx to Sesame Street: A Story of Inclusion and Belonging” on Thursday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. in the Bowling Green Performing Arts Center.
The announcement was made Monday at the library’s Board of Trustees meeting.
Library Director Michael Penrod said he expects she will pack the PAC just as last fall’s speaker author and actor Danny Trejo did.
“I’m actually more excited,” he said, “because she taught me my ABCs.”
Admission is free but registration is required. Registration should start in late August or early September.
Manzano is the author of a memoir “Becoming Maria” as well as several other books. She is also the creator of the PBS animated series “Alma’s Way,” inspired by her childhood.
She was Maria from 1974 through 2011.
Youth Services Coordinator Maria Simon said: “She has a great story herself growing up in south Bronx and becoming a celebrity on ‘Sesame Street.’”
She said the event would offer plenty of ways to collaborate with area public television stations and BGSU’s education programs. “It will be a great opportunity for a lot of people.”
The announcement came after a presentation during which Penrod, Simon, and Deputy Director Michele Raine discussed the library’s many collaborations with community organizations.
That includes a developing collaboration with The Cocoon, a shelter for victims of domestic abuse.
The library has provided a permanent loan of two computer workstations with internet browsers, Raine said. The Cocoon did not have adequate computers for clients.
They have also started discussing “how their collection might need to be refreshed,” she said.
These talks between library staff and Cocoon staff, have “helped us understand their services.”
What they need, Penrod said, is fluid because Cocoon’s clientele is constantly in flux. They may have several preschoolers one day, and none another.
The library is providing clients with access to online book borrowing services, and making sure they can get library cards even if the Cocoon is listed as their residence.
The library will also be providing adaptive toys for kids with developmental disabilities. Through the Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities, the library has started working with Re-Play for Kids which can provide toys that have been adapted to better suit the needs of those with mental and physical disabilities.
Raine said she wasn’t sure which toys they would get – they could get up to 25, or how they would be made available.
These are standard toys that have been adapted, she said, not toys specifically made for people with disabilities. The company also offers training on how to adapt toys.
This will offer another chance to work with the community and the university.
Simon said that the library’s story times on Thursdays at Wooster Green will be continued this summer.
The program was started during the period of pandemic restrictions to allow for social distancing. Simon said she wasn’t thinking of the outside story times until she was contacted by someone from the city who said they hoped the library was going to continue late morning activity because the city is planning on having food trucks at lunchtime at Wooster Green.
Simon said on hearing that she decided the outdoor story times were a go. It offers a chance to bring members from different parts of the community together.
That fits, she said, with the theme of the summer reading program: All Together Now.
Simon also spoke of the collaboration between the library and the university’s In the Round series featuring indigenous creators that brought the author and illustrator of the award-winning book “Fry Bread” to Bowling Green. Writer Kevin Noble Maillard and illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal spoke on campus and then gave a presentation at the library.
[RELATED: ‘Fry Bread’ author & illustrator bring a taste of indigenous culture to BG]
As part of the visit, WBGU-PBS provided a grant that allowed copies of the book to be given to every student in kindergarten through third grade, as well as the first 100 families who arrived at the library event.
Simon also discussed 1Book BG.
[RELATED: Everybody wins – Community asked to chip in to put books in hands of all K-5 students for 1BookBG]
Penrod discussed recent discussions with Northwood officials about how to better serve that city on the northern extreme of the WCDPL’s scattered service area.
