Blog Archives

It's Not Too Late to Win Grand Prizes in the Super Summer Challange!

7/31/2020

by Stephanie C.

The City Library's summer learning program, The Super Summer Challenge, ends next Satruday, August 8th. It's not too late to finish the program and enter to win some of our awesome grand prizes. If you haven't started yet, you can still sign-up and track reading and other activities you've been doing since the start of summer.

PRIZES!!!

All finishers will receive a coupon for a free book from a local bookstore, and 4 tickets to our grand prize drawing. Each age group has different grand prize options. Take a look at our Teen Grand Prize Options:

Four winners will receive 2 Tickets to Lagoon
Seven winners will receive a Mexagplex Gift Card
Five winners will receive a Virtualities Gift Card
Eight winners will receive a King's English Bookstore Gift Card
Five winners will receive a Get Out Games escape room Gift Card
Four winners will reveive a cooking class for two at Harmons
Two winners will receive family memberships to Red Butte Garden
Two winners will receive family memberships to Tracy Aviary

Our participation is way down this year due to Covid, but we have more prizes than ever before! We hope you have fun with the challenge this year and we can't wait to plan an even bigger summer for you next year.

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Meet the Day-Riverside Branch Teen Squad

7/27/2020

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by McKelle

Hi there! I’m McKelle, and I’m the Teen Associate Librarian at the Day-Riverside branch! I’m so pleased to introduce Day-Riverside’s awesome Teen Squad Group this year and all the amazing work they’ve been doing!

Hello! My name is Jennifer Echeveste, and I will be a senior at West High School next year. I have lived in Salt Lake City my entire life. I love being a part of softball and Dance Company programs at my high school. I am honored to represent my peers as the Senior Class President of 2020-2021. This will be my third year volunteering with the library, and I am excited to participate in this year’s Teen Squad team leader of the Day-Riverside Branch. I enjoy volunteering because there is always room to improve my communication skills and get to know more people and create strong connections.

My name is Anagha Rao, and I will be a junior at Skyline High School. This is my first year volunteering with Teen Squad, and I am part of the Day-Riverside Branch. One of my favorite parts of Teen Squad was working on my unique project and getting a chance to make a positive difference in my community. In my free time, I enjoy playing tennis, learning about nutrition, and writing for the school newspaper. I love to be involved in my community and aspire to work as a medical professional in the future. My project is a 30-Day fitness challenge to help teens and adults stay healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hello! My name is Jules, and I am a Teen Squad volunteer at the Day-Riverside library. This is also my second year being part of Teen Squad! I am going to be a freshman this fall; some of my hobbies include drawing and writing. I am an aspiring artist with two webcomics, and I’m working on writing a novel! My Teen Squad project is making a zine for each month of 2020.

Thanks for reading about our Day-Riverside Teen Squad Volunteers! Hopefully you've had a chance to learn about all 40 of our summer volunteers. To find out more about each of their projects and see some of their final products, visit our Teen Squad page.

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Meet the Marmalade Branch Teen Squad

7/24/2020

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By Yoli

Fun fact, the Marmalade Branch is named after the groves of fruit trees that once grew in the neighborhood. Now you know a new piece of library trivia!

Hi, my name is Yoli, and as a Teen Librarian at the Marmalade Branch I get to support teens’ goals and dreams. Every summer we have the Teen Squad, and teens can volunteer at the library. This is a great way for teens to give back to their communities while adding volunteer experience to their resume.

I’d like to thank this year’s Teen Squad for all of their hard work during these unusual and difficult times. The Marmalade Teen Squad is super creative and thoughtful, and has a great work ethic. Thank you Alex, Claire, Hazel, Laynee, Lily, and Mariam for making this team awesome!

I borrowed a sewing machine and I am getting help from my mom to learn how to sew masks. My plan is to create a tutorial for other teens to learn how to make a mask. The tutorial will be posted to the library’s teen blog, or to the Biblioboard teen DIY page.

An illustration from Alex’s upcoming blog post reviewing world music.

Hi, I am Alex. I am 16 and will be a senior at West High next year. This is my 4th year volunteering at Marmalade library. In my free time, I like to watch animated TV shows, play piano, and read about world history. I am excited to be on the Teen Squad this year and work on a project to help others experience the variety of CDs that our library offers to us.

I will create a book club for LGBTQ+ and ally tweens. I noticed that the library had resources for teens who are part of the community, but not for tweens, so I thought that since I have the ability to come up with and create a program I would create a resource for tweens in the community. I plan to have the book club meet every two weeks, reading a new book every four. In the meetings in which books aren’t being discussed, we will be able to socialize and make new friends. This is my first year doing Teen Squad and I’m so excited! I spend most of my time reading, writing, taking photos in the cemetery, or listening to Showtunes.

I will create a story-writing template for children and tweens. It will guide them through things like characters, plotline, and settings. Through this activity they will be able to build creative writing skills. This is my second year volunteering for Teen Squad. In my free time, she enjoys hanging out with friends, and playing sports.

I will create a quiz that will engage curious readers into taking a questionnaire to find their dream book in any genre of their choosing. Whether it be Sci-Fi or Fantasy or any other genre you could think of, these quizzes use your personality to match you up with the book of your dreams in any genre of your choosing. This is my first year volunteering for the Teen Squad. In my free time, I like to play soccer, hang out with friends, read, and watch movies. I am super excited to be a part of the teen squad this year.

I'm Lily and I am creating a Flowchart that teens can follow to get quick book recommendations. The project would allow teens and tweens to find interesting books to read quickly. The flowchart has mostly young adult and teen targeted books. It would be displayed as a poster or file online. I am 16, This is my second year with teen squad and I will be a Junior at West High this school year.

We hope you enjoyed reading about our Marmalade Teen Squad volunteers. Our last volunteer post, coming next Monday, will feature volunteers from our Day-Riverside Branch. Until then, have a great holiday weekend!

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Microagressions, a video

7/22/2020

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by Stephanie C. & Planned Parenthood Teen Council of Park City

What are microagressions?

"Microagressions are the everyday verbal, non-verbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional, or unintentional...which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. "

Our friends at Planned Parenthood's Park City Teen Council made this excellent video about Microagressions.

Microagressions Fine Cut - 2nd pass from Planned Parenthood Utah on Vimeo.

That is the Teen Council???

As you can see from the video, Teen Council members also explore and help teach peers about other social issues important to them. To learn more about Teen Council please visit their website by clicking the link below.

Teen Council Info

Have you ever experienced microagressions? What are some ways you can stand up for each other if you see microagressions happening?

Big thank you to Medalid and her council for sharing this video with the Library!

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Meet the Chapman Branch Teen Squad

7/20/2020

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by Christine

Christine

Christine is the Teen Librarian at the Chapman Branch. She loves working for The City Library and has worked at several branches. A fan of the TV show Supernatural, she especially likes working at Chapman because it is allegedly haunted. So far though - no ghosts. Her quarantine routine involves a daily walk and hourly chocolate.

And introducing Chapman’s awesome Teen Squad and their projects!

Beatrice

Beatrice has been a member of Teen Squad at the Chapman Branch for 3 years. This year she is working on a zine project called Library Stories that includes stories and illustrations from the community. She loves the TV shows Parks and Recreation and The Office and has spent her quarantine watching Netflix and eating chips.

Emily

This is Emily’s first year being a member of Teen Squad. Ever since she was little, she enjoyed taking trips to the library to find new reads. Emily is super passionate about dance, and is currently dancing at her studio along with Skyline Dance Ensemble. Because of this, she wants to share her passion with other teens during this pandemic. For her project, Emily is creating a series of yoga/dance videos that will help teens to not only have a fun way to spend their quarantine but to also learn something new.

Rosi

Rosi is a member of Teen Squad. She loves sports of all kinds from Boxing to Rock Climbing. She loves reading books about love, adventure, fantasy, and overcoming societal obstacles. Quarantine, however, has been rough. So, in effort to help others who might struggle in similar ways with mental health, she got inspiration for a project! She is getting books, resources, playlists and more, that correspond with mental health and eating disorder guidance. Let’s persevere even in the face of terrifying quarantine!

Thanks for reading about our awesome Chapman volunteers! Next time we'll be featuring Teen Squad volunteers from our Marmalade Branch.

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Meet the Glendale Branch Teen Squad

7/17/2020

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by Kristen

I’m the Teen Librarian at Glendale! I love The Office, Hamilton, reading, cake, and planning fun things for the teens at Glendale. I really enjoy talking to my Teen Squad teens, but I definitely miss getting to see them in person - helping with programs, projects, signing people up for summer reading, and making summer at Glendale so much fun. I have had the pleasure of working with this year’s Glendale Teen Squad before, and they are both awesome people (who I hope decide to work at the library some day).

Hello! My name is Sarah and I am 16 years old. I currently attend Murray high school and I like to work with ceramics, draw, listen to music and podcasts, foster kittens, and of course, read! I am really happy to be volunteering again with the teen squad this year as this is a great way for me to be involved with the community. For my project, I have decided to make a list of resources and books that deals with the topic of mental health in teens.

My name is Serenity and I am 14 years old. I really enjoy playing volleyball. The Office is my favorite show, and I have two dogs, they are named Rhody and Calla Lily, both are named after flowers. I’ve enjoyed volunteering at the library because it can be very interesting and fun.

My project is a zine about the black lives matter movement. I am writing things everyone should know about the movement and how they can help.