Children’s Fall Fest means fun for all

Libraries are usually quiet places, but the one in Florence was abuzz with laughter, babies’ giggles and childish squeals on Saturday.

All the fun was apart of the Sixth Annual Children’s Fall Festival held at the Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation Library in Florence.

Excited children led their parents across the full parking lot and under the building’s portico, which was alive with chatter mixed with the sounds of live Caribbean music played on steel drums.

There, visitors got their faces painted, fingerprints recorded and balloon creatures made.

Young Effingham resident Dondre James was one of the many children eagerly waiting for their balloon friends to be crafted.

He had a blue balloon dog made because blue is his favorite color, the 8-year-old said while clutching the dog in his right hand and an unidentified balloon creation in the left. The one in his left was unidentifiable.

At the urging of his grandmother, Olamae Backus, James said he’d also visited with Florence Police officers who gave him a shiny police shield sticker, deeming him a junior policeman for the day.

In addition to meeting community helpers, police and firefighters and checking out their vehicles, some children learned how to make their own movies — movies on a stick, of all things.

Yes, ice cream isn’t the only great thing that comes on a stick, according to 5-year-old Bryce Alicea and 7-year-old Jannero Epps.

The two friends visited the ScienceSouth mobile lab, where an instructor showed them how to make a movie with just the stick, two drawings and a little imagination.

Children colored two slightly different drawings on paper and tape them to each side of the stick, ScienceSouth instructor Brock Page said. 

If a stick with faces on it is twirled to and fro, it looks like there’s one face changing expressions.

Epps proudly demonstrated the “movie” he’d created after leaving the lab Saturday.

Inside, Dewey D. Fox, the library’s official mascot, met and greeted children on their way to other entertainment.

While many fun activities are available at the festival, the event aims to promote both early and family literacy.

The annual event attracts more than 3,000 children and families to the library each year.

— Staff writer Jamie Rogers can be reached at (843) 317-7266