It had all the makings of a great New Year’s Eve celebration, minus the sleepiness, at this year’s Delaware County District Library’s Noon Year’s Eve party held Tuesday at the main branch at 84 E. Winter St., Delaware. Nearly 100 people, parents and children, were in attendance.
Simultaneously on Tuesday, the district’s Orange Branch, located at 7171 Gooding Blvd., Delaware, held its fourth Noon Year’s Eve party.
“This is at least our fourth year total for Delaware County District Library and only the second one for the main branch,” said Nicole Fowles, Delaware County District Library communications manager. “In total, children, and adults, we’ll get about a hundred people, but the Orange Branch serves a larger area and will get more people than we do.”
Activities to celebrate the new year included party hats; wands with large stars on top that were used to wave in the new year; a photo station for pictures with a giant-sized 2020; a reflection area with sheets of paper in which a question was written focusing back on things that might have happened in 2019; an activity station with a wheel of fortune loaded with fortunes for the coming year; and a place to write a letter to be read in the future.
“Of course, everything we do highlights literacy and fine motor skills,” Fowles said. “It’s all fun veiled in education — reading, writing, talking and singing — all part of early literacy skills.”
Fowles said she has seen many parents bring their children back every year to the Noon Year’s Eve parties.
“This is our second year. I love it, and the kids do, too,” Camille Eye said. “They do a great job.”
Jacob Eye, Camille’s husband, said with a grin that he was dragged to the event by his children. He confessed, however, that he finds the celebration “pretty cool, too.”
Patricia Quinn, a very proud grandmother and Delaware resident, said she has been coming to the library for 26 years.
“It was just built when we moved to Delaware,” she said.
Quinn added she was there with her grandchildren and her daughters for the ball drop, the confetti, and the balloons, but it really was for the joy it brought to her grandchildren.
“We love the library,” she said.
Minutes before noon Tuesday, library staff gathered on the mezzanine with bags of blown-up balloons, confetti and bubble makers. Then five seconds before noon, the children counted down to noon. As they counted, a silver disco ball was lowered, just as the Times Square Ball is lowered in New York City. When the clock struck 12 p.m., staff threw the balloons and confetti over the railing of the mezzanine down to the children who screamed, squawked, and danced in celebration of the upcoming year.
