This year’s Colony Day was extra special for me because wanted to find a fun and creative way to advocate for the library and share the joy of reading with our community, so I decided to build a float for the parade.

With the theme “Joy in the Journey,” I took my own interpretation of the theme—reading can take you anywhere! With cardboard appliance boxes generously donated by an appliance store in Iola, I built a train with three cars representing different book genres: Mystery, Adventure, and Fantasy.

As I walked through the parade, I handed out “golden tickets” designed like scratch-offs. Some lucky participants discovered they were winners and could come find me later that day to claim a special prize—a little plush bookworm reading a book with the message, “Always be a bookworm. Keep reading!”

Our float ended up taking second place, which was such a fun surprise! It was definitely hot walking the parade route, but seeing people smile and get excited about reading made every bit of the work worth it. It was such a fun experience and a great reminder of how libraries can bring creativity, connection, and a little bit of magic to our communities.