Suffolk County libraries to host the first 'Great Playdate' for kids
There will be an "animal hullabaloo" at the Bayport-Blue Point Public Library during the Great Playdate on Sept. 22. Credit: Anthony Lanzilote
Parents of babies, toddlers and preschoolers, mark your calendars: The first countywide Great Playdate is scheduled for Sept. 22, spearheaded by the Public Libraries of Suffolk County and the Suffolk Cooperative Library System.
Each participating library across Suffolk County will plan its own events for the day. The Great Playdate: A Day of Fun and Learning at Suffolk County Libraries is an early learning initiative meant to bring together the youngest patrons and their parents/caregivers to talk, sing, read and play.
The Bayport-Blue Point Public Library, for instance, is scheduled to offer an “animal hullabaloo,” where patrons can interact with goats, piglets, chickens, ducks and rabbits. The Hauppauge Public Library is planning parachute play. The Brookhaven Free Library is adopting a camping theme, with participants making s’mores, reading in a tent, going on a bear hunt and getting warmed by a (play) fire.
“We wanted to give our libraries a new way to get the word out about all the wonderful early learning programs that are going on all the time in our communities,” says Darla Salva Cruz, youth services consultant for the Suffolk Cooperative Library System.
For more information, call your local library or visit thegreatplaydate.org.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
