Six years ago, I moved a program from knocking around in my head into reality. I wanted to create a program that would celebrate the bonds between mothers and daughters. I grew up with boys--bothers, neighbors, and cousins. I was a rough and tumble tomboy but as I grew older, I began to appreciate the extra effort my mother took to bond with me as her daughter. Through these bonds, she encouraged me to be me--even when it wasn't who she wanted me to be--she let me know that my dreams and imagination had no bounds--whatever I could imagine for myself, I could realize. There are statistics justify having a program that celebrates the bond of mothers, daughters and women share, but for the sake of getting on with the story, I won't elaborate.
With the opening of the new library in January, we wanted to create traditions in the community. So I discussed the Mother Daughter Tea idea with the Friends of the Library. There was mostly support but opposition came from one corner. So the FOL came to an agreement that they would put together gift baskets for a silent auction, the proceeds would be used to support the program thus squelching the opposition. Because I dream in elaborate schemes, I imagined our Community Room becoming a tea room on the style of the Huntington Garden Tea Room. For the next several months, I collected tea cups and clarified the idea into an action plan.
The first tea was such a success that guests asked for teas more often. Once again discussing the idea with the FOL we decided that we could offer the tea and gift baskets twice a year--the Saturday before Mother's Day and then again in early December for a Winter Tea. Although the tea was a success, it was at my and the volunteer's expense. The next teas would be spent refining the planning process and getting more volunteers to assist with the load.
This last Saturday marked our 13th tea in 6 1/2 years. I have a dedicated volunteer that has assisted for the past 10 teas and we have it down to well choreographed event. And make no mistake about it--it is an event. On the third tea, I began a storytelling element that has become a cornerstone of the event. I considered dropping the stories out but in a conversation with a father, he told me his daughter was looking forward to hearing the stories. That night I began to prepare stories for the the upcoming tea and have always included them since. And truth be told, it is the element that guests tell me they enjoy most.
Last Saturday was a Mad Hatter Tea Party. In a donation, we received a rather tattered copy of Best In Children's Books. This sparked a memory. I had this book. I must have gotten it when I was three or four years old. I had it before I could read. I remember is looking at the color plates and imagining the story. I searched on line and discovered that Alice was 151 years old--at first I was disappointed that I didn't come up with the idea the previous year, but then I realized that a Mad Hatter Tea Party wouldn't celebrate a usual anniversary.
Once the theme was settled came ideas for decorating. We also received a donation of an old dictionary which the FOL put in the free box. I snagged it and some experimenting, I found that copying images onto the old dictionary pages was successful. The images are out of copyright and probably they would fall in the fair use category at any rate, so I created my wall decorations. I re-used boards from a previous photo exhibit I had. I searched around and found inexpensive keys that we could use for the party favor.
Since this was a Mad Hatter Tea Party, I wanted to create some hats for the photo op I set up. On a trip to the dollar store, I found noticed that party headbands and thought I could make them work. Again with a bit of experimenting, feather boas, and hot glue, I had a set of hats. I picked up some bottles and treat boxes to craft into the Eat Me, Drink Me
decorations and used a set of cards and heart punches to create the card soldiers. I found this craft online but decided to tweak it by adding wooden blocks from Michaels painted black for the feet and a cake pop stick (also at the dollar store) for the standard they are holding.
Next was the craft idea. I tossed around several different craft ideas but then settled for the simplest idea to execute--I copied 5 x 7 black and white Alice images onto dictionary pages, cut silver card stock in half, colored the pictured and bling-ed it out with jewels and ribbon we had on hand.
And then the stories--I considered telling the Mad Hatter Tea Party story. However, I am very good at storytelling but not at memorizing written stories and telling them. In the end, I decided I would retell the synopsis of the Tea Party story and just as the dormouse told a story I let the audience know
that I would tell them a story. I chose to tell the Broken Easter Egg Story from my childhood and how my mother created stories for us. At the end I encouraged the mothers to share stories with their daughters, real stories of who they are because it is through stories that we bond with each others. I then explained that I could relate to Alice because she was curious and it was her curiosity that led her on the Adventures in Wonderland. I then recounted my rather comical first day in Japan and how it was as fantastical to me and Wonderland was to Alice.
We end the tea with a free raffle. I collect donated items and items that I pick up here and there for the free raffle. We have a couple of people that regularly donate rather nice items for the raffle. Once the raffle is completed, we are done for the day. I am fairly exhausted but also energized.
What makes all of this worth the effort is knowing how much the community appreciates the opportunity. I hope that I can spark one person into the art of storytelling and that positive library memories are created and bonds are strengthened.
This last time I received the following remarks:
Thank you again for having my daughter Samantha and I at the very lovely tea party. We had the best time bonding and creating memories.
Thank you again for the wonderful tea party. We love everything from start to end. The detail decoration and planning are beautiful. My daughters and I had a great time. Yes, I do agree with Anabel, please do share more stories. The stories you share bring us much closer to knowing who you are.
Thank you for putting this together so we can share this special memories with our daughters.
We want you to know that your efforts do not go unappreciated.
There are more, after the party, many let me know that they had a wonderful time and enjoyed the event. This year one guest commented that she didn't think that other libraries did such elaborate events for the community and felt that she was glad to be part of the La Crescenta Community.