LitCrates

Prove Popular

Given the success of LitCrates for adults and teens, Youth Services expanded the library’s book selection service to tweens in grades 4–6. Each crate contains one curated book and a few themed goodies. Staff curated 300 Adult LitCrate boxes in 2022. Customers could sign up for a six-month subscription, which included a bimonthly subscription box. In 2022, 161 teens participated and received 232 LitCrates. From March to December, 73 tweens participated

Outreach E orts Grow

From a return to in-school visits to new festivals, the library’s outreach efforts grew in 2022. Besides the regular Farmers Market visits and special events like National Night Out and the Fourth of July Parade, the library added new visits, like a presence at the new Heritage Fest, the first multicultural festival in Arlington Heights.

National Senior Health and Fitness Day offered free health screenings to close to 200 people at the Arlington Heights Senior Center. The library greeted more than 300 customers at the Butterfly Garden as part of The Arlington Heights Garden Club’s Garden Walk. The library hosted a tent outside the Makerplace building during the Frontier Days Festival where bike riders used the new bike repair station to tune up their bikes and refill their tires. And after an almost three-year hiatus, the library visited the Hispanic community festival of Misión San Juan Diego Catholic Church of Arlington Heights to promote library services.

Staff also visited Forest View District 214 Women’s and Children’s Center, Mitsuwa Marketplace, Kinokuniya Bookstore, Autumn Harvest and the return of Harmony Fest featuring the Taste of Arlington Heights.

The 16th Annual Teen Film Fest was a dazzling success. It was the first in-person festival at the library since 2019. Submissions from teen filmmakers in 7th grade through recent high school graduates were screened at the fest. The teen filmmakers received feedback, encouragement and insights from the volunteer judges. Judges this year were Shelli Nicole, a cultural critic and recent Emerging Critics Grant recipient from the Chicago Film Critics Association, Annette Bochenek, a film historian and professor, and Bryan Bednarek, a digital media specialist and video editor. More than 100 members of the community attended the fest to celebrate the filmmakers. The judges handed out awards and attendees gathered in the Hub for an after party.

Summer Reading Challenge

Summer Reading was back in full swing! Customers lined up outside the library on the morning of June 6 to be first in line to register. Over 500 customers signed up on the first day alone. Over 2,950 youth, from birth to high school, participated, doubling last year's participation and approaching pre-pandemic levels. The youth of Arlington Heights collectively logged over 35,000 days of reading during summer 2022.

Labor of Love at Community Garden

All summer, library staff and volunteers rolled up their sleeves and volunteered their time tending a garden plot at the Viatorian Giving Garden, located at 1212 Euclid Avenue. The library and other participating gardeners and organizations donated half of what they grew to local charitable organizations such as the Wheeling Township Food Pantry. Since its founding in 2012, the Viatorian Giving Garden has donated more than 10,000 pounds of vegetables to help those in need and by early August had already surpassed 1,000 pounds of produce donated for 2022! The library was grateful to be a part of this meaningful community effort for the first time.

Museum Adventure Passes Return

In response to customer feedback, the Museum Adventure Pass program returned, allowing Arlington Heights cardholders to check out passes to several area museums and attractions. Museum Adventure Passes continued to prove popular throughout 2022.

The library’s garden included a combination of herbs and vegetables like kale, tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini along with pollinator flowers to attract butterflies and bees. The other half of what was grown was harvested and brought to the library’s Makerplace for monthly Garden & Produce Swaps and used as fresh ingredients in some of the culinary classes. A special thanks for the Friends of the Library for funding this garden in 2022.