Thanks to Sam Carpenter at LEPMPL for this guest post!
Those of you who came to the
Sure-fire Teen Programs presentation at the SLP workshop in November might
remember Ashley Bieber, the teen coordinator at LEPMPL, talking about an
upcoming Escape the Room program. Many libraries have created their own escape
rooms/programs for all ages with great success . . .
. . . and we wanted to try it as well. We felt sure it would
appeal to teens, but we also felt sure it would be a great deal of work and
that we would have to experience an escape room ourselves before creating one
at the library.
Luckily for us, the moment I called Escape EC and explained what I
had in mind, owner Jack Trautlein offered to help. He and co-owner Jessica
Stickler hosted six employees from LEPMPL at Escape EC, donated a portion of
our entrance fee to charity, and gave us just enough hints to help us escape
the room “The Professor” with a few minutes to spare. We had so much fun and
were so wowed by the props in the room, we ended up booking Escape EC for an
afternoon the week of Christmas break for our teen program. It is the first
off-site teen program I have ever been a part of, and not having to create our
own room at the library was a real sanity-saver at a very busy time of year.
We did the scheduling at the library and ended up meeting
thirty-one teens at Escape EC. We had 6 groups of anywhere
from 5 to 8 teens scheduled to escape the room every 30 minutes between
1 and 4 p.m. The kids were really excited and appreciative of this
free program. We played fast dice games with them while they waited for their
turn in the room and provided some simple refreshments. We chatted with
parents, played cards with younger siblings, and got to know even library
regulars a whole lot better.
If you are thinking about planning a similar program, I would not
hesitate to call Escape EC for advice. Jack and Jessica are smart and fun and
care a whole lot about kids and their community. It’s also a great place to
have a laugh with coworkers and engage in some fun teambuilding. Check it out:
Happy New Year!
Labels: staff development, teen programs