PreSchool Partners visits the Emmet O’Neal Library

PreSchool Partners, an outreach program of Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church, took a field trip recently to the Emmet O’Neal Library in Crestline. PreSchool Partners is a non-profit program dedicated to preparing at risk 3- and 4-year-old children and their parents for kindergarten in the Birmingham City Schools.

Parents and children met the author and the illustrator of Night, Night Birmingham, a popular children’s book featuring sites around Birmingham. Laurel Fain Mills and Michelle Hazelwood Hyde read their book to the children and asked them if they had ever visited the Zoo or Vulcan, two of the places mentioned in the book. Keeping with the Birmingham theme, the children were then served Bud’s Best Cookies and Barber’s milk, both of which are made in Birmingham. Children then made door hangers for their bedrooms featuring scenes from the book. Each child received his or her own copy of Night, Night Birmingham to add to his or her home library.

While the children were enjoying their “bedtime snack” and art activity, parents toured the library and learned about the many opportunities the library provides. Several parents completed applications for library cards and some even obtained voter registration cards.

Volunteers from the Junior League of Birmingham helped arrange the field trip to the library.