BELPRE – The Belpre Public Library, a branch of the Washington County Public Library System, rang in the New Year a little early Wednesday with a kid-focused “Noon Year’s Eve” celebration designed for young children and their parents.

“These are the kids you’re not going to want up late, but they want to feel like they’re part of everything,” Branch Manager Cayde Copeland said. “We want to make sure that they don’t have to feel like that.”

Now in its third year, the event drew about 22 attendees, counting both children and adults, and featured a bounce house, laser lights, and karaoke designed especially for the little ones.

“Watching 3-year-olds to 5-year-olds do karaoke is a blast. I highly recommend it,” Copeland said.

Colette Mace attended the event with her 4-year-old daughter Macie and said for many families, especially stay�’at�’home parents, the program is as much about connection as it is about celebration.

“This is like a social gathering for moms. We get to socialize, we get to have adult interaction, but yet, our kids still get to participate and still get to have fun,” Mace said. “It’s socialization for the kids and the adults, and that is so needed.”

Bethany Rivera attended with her 4-year-old daughter Anna and said it was events like this at the library that helped build her daughter’s confidence.

“If you go back a few months ago, my child would have been too shy to get up and sing in front of a whole bunch of people,” Rivera said. “By coming to programs like this, she came out of her shell… found new bravery to go and sing in front of her friends… Coming to the library improves her quality of life.”

Copeland said the Noon Year’s Eve party is just one of many programs the library runs year�’round.

“We do at least two story-times every week,” she said. “Monday is our toddler time. Friday is our preschoolers. Every Wednesday night, we have a gaming hangout for teens … Thursdays, we have our home school groups … and we have a really active adult crafting program.”

Copeland said a new evening family story time is being launched to help working parents who may not be able to attend events during the day.

“We’re actually starting a new evening story time this month,” Copeland said. “A bedtime, calm down family story time theme … We’re hoping to reach out to families that we can’t serve with our normal story times.”

Mace said it was these kinds of events the library has that have helped her and her daughter form lasting friendships.

“It’s so much more than books, it’s community. If I didn’t go to the library, I would have not gotten that opportunity,” she said.

Copeland said a list of events and times can be found on the Belpre Public Library website and that information isn’t limited to just that branch.

“Our library website actually has all the programs for the libraries across the county,” Copeland said. “Washington County Libraries are all connected, and every branch has some really amazing stuff that they’re doing. And we’re all very different spaces, so we have a lot of people that utilize all of us for programming, because you can just find something a little different at each one.”

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com

Programs at the Belpre Public Library:

Regular Weekly Programs:

* Monday Toddler Time – Story time for toddlers.

* Friday Preschool Story Time – Story time geared toward preschool-aged children.

* Wednesday Teen Gaming Hangout (4-6 p.m.) – Gaming hangout for teens.

* Thursday Homeschool Groups

Under�’12 homeschool group

Teen homeschool group

Adult Programs:

* Adult Crafting Program – Active adult crafting group that usually meets twice a month on Mondays.

Special / New Programs:

* Annual New Year’s Eve Party for Kids

Bounce house

Laser light dance party

Karaoke

Snacks: sparkling grape juice, cheese sticks, cookies

* New Evening Family Story Time (starting January)

Friday evening after the library closes

Bedtime, calm down” family story time theme

Aimed at working parents who can’t attend daytime story times