On the afternoon of Saturday, March 5th, the Champaign Public Library held its second ever event to bring a board game to a life-sized scale. Preparation began earlier in the week to get everything set just right, constructing not only the board itself but all the life-sized versions of the candy stops along the way. Gramma Nutt’s House, Gumdrop Mountains, Peppermint Forest, Ice Cream Cove; all of these and more were present and created not only with fun in mind, but also fiscal responsibility. Almost everything in the room was created from re-used library materials: Christmas decorations for the forests, colorful tablecloths for the mountains, paper plates and wrapping paper for the candies. With this approach the largest cost to the community was simply volunteer time, something worthy of praise in these tight budget times.
So, why make a giant Candy Land? “This was a collaboration between the Teen and Children’s departments to bring in people that might not normally come to the library,” explained Children’s Librarian Kristin Hungerford. “Candy Land is visually inspiring and lots of fun. We’re also considering bringing other games to life as well such as Pac Man, which might draw in a retro crowd.” As I (fondly) consider myself part of said retro crowd, you will definitely see me at the library on that day- and not as the photographer.
The doors to the game room (rooms A & B, to be exact) opened just before 3 p.m. to a rush of children. Actually, it was more like a flood and just shy of a well-controlled (thanks to the staff and volunteers) stampede. The final tally ended up being 334 children making their way through the game (some more than once!), which about doubled last year’s attendance.
Below, the line for entering the game stretched out into the hall… and around the corner.
Game participants worked through the room individually at their own pace rather than competing against others. Grabbing a spinner made out of a paper plate and plastic arrow at the starting point, the rules were simple: spin the arrow, move to the color or special piece of candy that the arrow landed on, then repeat.
Below, you don’t have to be a kid to have fun here!
Below, dedicated library staff conducting emergency field repairs.
Throughout the entire time the game was in session the room was filled with the sounds of music a la Charlie and the Chocolate factory, adding another aspect of fun to the day. At the very end of the game Princess Lollipop waited to congratulate everyone for making it through- and to provide photo op in front of the Candy Castle.
There was also a treasure box filled with fun library goodies to take home, from t-shirts to stickers to toy balls. The fun didn’t end there, however, as just across the hall room C was open to a host of coloring and board game activities including, you guessed it, Candy Land!
Activities ended just before 4 p.m. and the crowd had thinned enough at that point to let the tear-down begin without disappointing any little ones. Overall the day brought smiles to tons of faces, and definitely made for a busy Saturday at the library. It will be quite interesting to see what our dedicated staff of librarians does to bring even more fun next year!