An Old-Fashioned Christmas at the Gaylord Library with Author Gordon Frederickson

2012 Fiscal Year Funding Amount

$501

Project of

Traverse des Sioux Library Cooperative Legacy Grant SFY 2012 - SFY 2013

Fund Source

Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund

Recipient Type

Libraries

Status

Completed

Start Date

December 2011

End Date

December 2011

Activity Type

Education/Outreach/Engagement

Counties Affected

Sibley

Project Overview

For a special holiday event at the library we brought in Gordon Frederickson author of “A Farm Country Christmas Eve.” For this event the author included an introduction with props from the farm, a prologue, and a reading of the book as the illustrated pages were projected onto a large screen. During the performance the author wore the traditional costume of a farmer in 1950 as he recited one of his books and told other stories. The performances were geared to the audiences and were meant to entertain, teach, and inspire all ages. Since the year 2000, he has been writing and telling stories that are real-life adventures of adults and children on a small family farm in the year 1950. He writes these stories to preserve our farm heritage in an entertaining way with humor, love and accuracy. Along with the author we will have different activity stations for “old-fashioned” fun; decorating “old-fashioned” Christmas cookies, writing letters to Santa, visiting Santa, animals to pet from the farm and opportunities to win prizes.

Project Details

We had 209 children register and we estimated that each child had 2 adults with them for a total of about 600 participants.

Project Details: 2012 Fiscal Year

Legal Citation / Subdivision

Laws of Minnesota for 2011 Chapter 6, Article 4, Subdivision 4

2012 Fiscal Year Funding Amount

$501

Other Funds Leveraged

$285

Direct expenses

$786

Administration costs

$12

Number of full time equivalents funded

Proposed Measurable Outcome(s)

Our primary target audience was kids of any age from the Gaylord community, surrounding communities and parents and/or older adults. The participants will enjoy listening to a Minnesota author. Children will enjoy doing old-fashioned Christmas activities with parents or older adults. Children and adults will learn how a farm Christmas was celebrated in 1950. And children and adults will learn that the library is a fun place to be! A survey will be distributed to parents and older children after they participate in the event.

Measurable Outcome(s)

It was a very busy day at the Gaylord Library. The author did two performances to help spread out the crowd some. A few citizens came specifically just to hear the author. Anecdotal feedback was all very positive. We later received an email from Author Gordon Frederickson, “The turnout was great and we enjoyed talking to the people between shows.” 50 surveys were returned. Out of the 50 surveys returned: 94% agree that they enjoyed the author. The remaining 6% left the question blank. 90% learned something new about Christmas in the past. 96% agreed that they had fun with an older person that day. Many of the different activities were popular; the biggest hit was the live farm animal display. 40% of the returned surveys state the animals were what they liked the most.

Source of Additional Funds

Traverse des Sioux Library System and partners: Gaylord Area Chamber of Commerce, local businesses, Girl Scouts, Friends of the Library and Gaylord Royalty. Gaylord Area Chamber of Commerce- Volunteers to help at different stations, cut out cookies with frosting and a visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Local Businesses- Donate a small incentive for every child in attendance and prizes that children can win.