SSC Library UnMasked 2016

We stayed open after hours for another fabulous SSC Library UnMasked event on July 15, 2016.  Entertaining an all-ages cosplay crowd is a big undertaking during busy summer scheduling, but it is 

TOTALLY WORTH IT!

The event began just after 6 p.m. with a line of cosplayers rolling onto the sidewalk! It's a joy to see the fruits of your labor pay off with an excited crew ready to UnMask the Library.

First 50 in the Door

Our registration table had free raffle tickets for all attendees to enter for prizes.  Comic magnets and special raffle tickets were offered to the First 50 in the Door.

Welcome to SSC Library UnMasked 2016

Rounding the library, attendees found FREE COMIC BOOKS

 leftover from Free Comic Book Day.

Free Comic Books for All

We had a button making station with lots of glossy images to make permanent mementos.

Make a Button with Danielle and Bethany

If you brought your appetite, Super Hero Stew would fill your hungry tummy.

Kacey serving the Super Hero Stew

There was a Super Smash Bros. video game tournament.  The competition for a $20 Game Stop gift card was tough.  Luckily we had a runner-up prize of $10 to Dippity Do Dahs Homemade Ice Cream Shop.

Super Smash Bros.

Many businesses and local artists donated their goods and services to this event and we are indebted to their generosity.  Great Escapes Adventures was on hand to play board games available in their shop in the Arnot Mall.  One lucky raffle winner will get to experience an Escape Room game in the near future.

Can you find the key to leave an Escape Room?

Joey Schichtel returned with his talent and photo booth for all to enjoy.  He donated 2 framed prints and an exclusive Harley Quinn comic book cover to our raffle prizes--

wish I could have won!

Joey Schichtel

Maegan McKenzie designed coloring sheets with background settings.  Everyone was welcome to draw their own super hero character to be added into a coloring book.

Maegan McKenzie

Emily Swan brought her talent with Paper Bag Super Hero Puppets.

Emily Swan and Co.

Ed Bond showed off his Metacheckers game.  He raffled one game as a prize, but also donated one game to the library in-house board game collection.  I challenge you to a duel!

Ed Bond with Metacheckers

We had an outta-control obstacle course.  

You had to capture our villain robot named Ramsey.

Obstacle Course

Hungry (human) Hippos gave way to more excitement.

Human Hippos

The evening rounded out with the highly anticipated Cosplay contest. For clarification of the word cosplay, it is costume play.  A fun activity for kids of all ages.  11th Hour Cosplay brought their knowledge and experience with cosplay costumes to the competition.

They had the honor of considering winners for four categories:  Novice, Journeyman, Master, and Group.  Each winner scored a weekend pass to Twin Tiers Comic Con in Elmira, New York on August 13 & 14, 2016!

Cosplay Contest

With stories and anecdotes behind each costume, 11th Hour Cosplay narrowed their decisions to these final winners:

Cowboy as Novice

Soul Eater Evans as Journeyman

Glados from Portal as Master

Robin and Batman (or is that The Joker?) as Group

We even had a surprise category of O.C., original character.  One of my First Friday Art Club students won this award for her creation made in our Cosplay Costumes event.

Best Original Character

There were so many wonderful efforts in competition.  The decisions were tough!  Congratulations to our winners, but extra special thanks to all who participated.  I feel events like this are more fun to meet new friends with similar interests than winning prizes.

It's difficult to list all costumes in entirety.  So much variety to enjoy all evening.

SSC Library UnMasked ended with over $600 in prizes offered to lucky winners whose names were drawn from our registration collection.

P R I Z E S ! ! !

We are grateful to our program sponsors who provided 

free or discounted opportunities and art work.  

• Heroes Comic Shop hooked us up with 2- $25 gift certificates, plus magnet door prizes
• Denny's Submarine Shop provided a certifiicate for 2 subs and 2 shakes 
• Park Avenue Sports Center gave 5 free passes for mini-golf
• Dippity Do Dahs Homemade Ice Cream Shop sent a $10 gift card + 6 scoop credits
• Filomena Jack sold us a Dr. Zoidberg original painting
• Joey Schichtel gave us 2 framed prints and an original comic book 
• Laura Charles provided 2 original prints
• Twin Tiers Comic Con gifted 4 passes for the 4 we bought for the Cosplay Contest.
• McDonald's Restaurant provided free small ice cream cards
• The grand prize was a Kindle Fire with $10 gift card, power cord, and screen protector

Prize Giveaway

The event finished at 8 p.m. once all prizes were collected and many families had their fill of thrills.  With 16 volunteers and library workers on hand, the building was back to business as usual within an hour.  As I locked the doors for the night, I felt relief that it all went off without a hitch.  I extend my gratitude to everyone who supported the Library UnMasked efforts.  Our community is rich with generosity!

Join Us Next Time

If you missed it this year, be sure to join us next time.  It just keeps getting better!

Thanks for visiting :)

~erica

 

Recycled Runway Fashion Show 2016

Recycled Runway Fashion Show 2016 was a SPLENDID SUCCESS!!!  All models, designers and assistants involved helped create a beautiful show of local talent.

Recycled Runway 2016 Finale

As the months have passed since we started our Friday Fashion Club series in January, you have been allowed to follow some snippets of our design progress.  This was our first program recap.

Water bottles, cardboard circles, yarn, glue and staples

This image was just a sneak peek at the design we submitted for jury.  We knew with only 5 sessions, 1.5 hours each, our hands had to work FAST to finish our fashion.  From January through May, we chipped away at the design requirements and I am pleased to FINALLY reveal the results.

Three of our nine young designers entered their own fashion to the jury and were also selected!  These fanciful beauties were proud to prove their ability to our communtiy.

Christina is a second year designer.

"The Writing Woman"

Christina took her second year design from a writer's perspective.  With assistance from a model mentor, her design took flare fit for the runway.

"Twins in a Bag"

Nicole and Leila designed their fashion from Target shopping bags.  These bags have been a favorite medium of years past, but they have never been seen in a twin pack.  This was also Nicole's second year design, but she recruited her best friend as a first year designer.

Here is a view of these veteran designers from 2015.  As you can see, a year makes a big difference.  These ladies took their designs to a new level in their second year designs!

Please note, the marvelous Strinni Studio sponsors this beautiful event.

Last year, the SSC Library Fashion Club strutted the runway with this 1920's inspired dress.

Read more about this style in Catch Us on the Runway.

Our lovely Sarah traveled the catwalk for the Fashion Club's first year design.  Oddly, we had another Sarah strut her stuff in 2016.  And without further ado, I introduce you to the "Age of Reason."

(drummmmmmm rolllllll pleassssssssse.......)

"The Age of Reason"

"The Age of Reason" was inspired by 18th Century garb and created with dozens of water bottles used for hydration during Family Movie Matinees. They were shaped around a hula hoop for structure, then stapled and secured into a skirt.  The top is made from card board circles, which were layered with multiple colors of yarn and glue.

This mess became the top to "Age of Reason"

The hair was inspired by the big wigs of the 18th century, think Marie Antoinette.  This image surfaced about the same time as our Friday Fashion Club began and we knew the hair was the direction we needed to travel!

Although Marie Antoinette and 18th century fashion was our inspiration, we wanted our lady to keep her head!  These models arrive on scene nearly 9 hours before the runway begins.  There is dressing room assignment, assistants need to arrive, details need to be dealt, lunch needs to be served.  Designs are tested, rehearsals smooth out kinks in various angles, sweat accumulates, and the day drags on....in a good way!  There is no cake to eat, but plenty of excitement and activity. By the time the actual show begins, all nerves are set aside and relief takes over.  Everyone sees the finale just beyond the horizon.  Each model takes to the catwalk with their best moves and the audience approves EVERYTHING!

Backstage, waiting for the show to begin

This is a great experience for any designer or fashion forward follower of any age. The best part of the Friday Fashion Club is supporting these budding career and hobby interests and directing the energies into a professional outlet. Families involved absolutely adore seeing their loved ones on stage.  We were lucky to even have the local news station on hand hosting interviews and taking video.  Please enjoy our design on stage in this video link.

Please pay close attention at 1:30 into the video...THERE WE ARE!  TA-DA!!!

Another year, another success.

The Program is the Proof

You might find another name you recognize a few lines down.  If you seek, you may find proof of this blogger strutting down on the catwalk as a spider.  

Check back soon for more program coverage.  Summer is approaching along with lots of fun.  If you like costumes, comic cons, cooking, art, technology, reading, and games, keep your radar right here.  We have you covered!!!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Free Comic Book Day is the first Saturday in May.  This year marked the 15th anniversary of this event, and the Southeast Steuben County Library got on board.  We ordered 500 issues of a variety of titles for our patrons to have, hold, and take home.

Captain America, Assassin's Creed, and Lady Mechanika were rated Teen +
Doctor Who and Howard Lovecraft were rated for All Ages

The Corning region was busy with sporting events, neighborhood rummage sales, Caton Community Days, Caton auctions, and the infamous Friends of the Library book sale.  Our building was nearly empty of patrons until mid afternoon, but the hours of 1-3 p.m. filled our hall of books with laughter, joy and wonder over the free comics and make-your-own-buttons.

For anyone who wanted to circuit the establishments offering free comics, our buddy Jared, head Hero Bot at Heroes Your Mom Threw Out created a list, which was printed in our local newspaper.  Jared even made an appearance on the local news and gave our library a shout out!  Thanks Jared!!!

SSC Library was a point in the Corning, Painted Post, Elmira Heights Free Comic Book Day triangle.

Current copies of Free Comic Book Day issues were available to any patron.  At least one free comic was offered, but as the day progressed, we offered any and all to whomever was interested.  For those who follow our Facebook events, there was a Cinco de Mayo ad to mention in order to receive all 5 copies for the low, low price of FREEEE! 

At last, we rolled out last year's leftover comics from our legendary Library UnMasked event. (Psssst....save the date....Library UnMasked is set for July 15, 2016, 6-8 pm!!!)  It was finally BUTTON MAKING TIME!

Leftover salmon is gross, but Leftover Comics are best read while standing

An instant crowd formed once the table was covered with color and comics.  Anyone interested was allowed to choose an image of their fancy and have it permanently preserved in a Badge A Minit press. 

Choose, Cut, Press, Preserve

This "machine" is not for the weak.  You MUST eat your Wheaties in order to have the strength to produce as many buttons as we did in just 2 hours.  Kids were fascinated by the simple machine and the process to make a pin button.  This activity is a little time consuming and easiest if one person controls the cutting, while another does the pressing.  No one seemed to care about the length of the process, just that they got to wear their favorite super hero or villain on their collar.

Only 2 buttons per patron?!?---"Wanna bet?"

While I prepared for big crowds by limiting quantities of books and buttons, our attendees has other ideas.  The enthusiasm to create these cool wearables and brag about them throughout the weekend was too tempting to stop at just two.  Luckily, we had enough supply to feed the masses.

Through the chaos, our STLS buddy, Filomena Jack of Pink Velvet Bird, dropped off her lovely art work to display in the library this summer.  Better get in the building before September!

photo of Filomena Jack by Janie Ferguson

This first time effort was a major success for a Saturday in the library.  Over 120 comics went to various homes and more than 50 buttons will be worn with pride for years to come.  Two little wonder women even received free goodies from a sweet Pink Velvet Bird.

Wonder Woman pouches by Pink Velvet Bird

Thanks for all who participated in this epic Free Comic Book Day.  Jared had our backs to make this day happen and we are very grateful to provide such fun to our community.

Jared, Our Helpful Hero

As I mentioned, the legendary Library UnMasked is set for Friday, July 15, 2016 from 6-8 p.m.  SAVE THE DATE!!!  Start making your cosplay gear and prepare for an evening of fun and games.  Let's ROCK THE LIBRARY for a second year!

Thanks for visiting.  

Please comment if you attended Free Comic Book Day.  

We want to hear from you.

Spring Break Mad City Money

It's Spring Break for Corning/ Painted Post Schools!  Luckily this break coincided with Money Smart week this year,April 23-30, 2016.  This gave me the opportunity to schedule our annual Mad City Money event presented by the Corning Credit Union.

Mad City Money, presented by Corning Credit Union

Mad City Money is real life simulation game, quite like the Game of Life.  Please read  this description of our Mad City Money event from 2015 to get a feel for all of the excitement. There were less students available this year, which means Spring Break is not a good time to plan a financial literacy event.  Nevertheless, 12 students got a real life lesson on being adults. 

"Bills, bills, bills!  It's so hard being an adult!"

These kids got a taste of how hard balancing a budget for needs is when you have the world of desires at your fingertips.  Who wants to buy a bus pass when a Ferrari is an option?!  And while dealing with a highly persuasive used car salesperson, like we did, choosing wisely might not be the easiest option.

Trust the salesperson or trust your gut?

After a two hour simulation, the students regrouped to discuss their experience.  All agreed this was a great lesson.  None of them underestimate the struggle their families face daily.  

But all were equally relieved that the simulation was over and it was time to be a kid again!

"I want to stay a kid forever!"

A special note of gratitude goes to our volunteers who became "merchants" for an afternoon.  Extra KUDOS go to the Corning Credit Union team who make this program possible in our region.  Great work!

Recycled Fashion, the final days

Recycled Runway Fashion show is June 4 and we cannot seem to work fast enough. Students were treated to an extra day off of school for Spring Break, which fell on our Fashion Friday Club work day.  This means less helpers were available to finish our creation.  Have no Fear, we will conquer this mission.

An "Inside" View

With staplers, hot glue guns, and yarn in hand, our team of designers understands the pressure of this deadline and works very hard to complete the task.  I bet they will never see water bottles or yarn the same way again.

Organized Chaos

The piles of donated yarn have become integral to this design and will provide color and texture to this creation.  There is a lovely balance of chaos and order, which will please the audience.  Fitting this "organized chaos" onto our petite model will be a minor challenge, but we stare "challenge" in the eyes and charge onward.

There is only one class left, just days before the runway.  The pressure is on to complete and refine before the BIG DAY.  Check back in May for the final sneak peeks before the show.  Better yet- get your ticket to the show.  You will be amazed!

2015 Runway Desgns