Thomas the Tank Engine

Our regional PBS station brought Thomas the Tank Engine to the downtown mall today.  The library sent two children's librarians to represent the library and provide activities for the children to do while they waited in line.  I was one of the ones to attend.

We set up two areas near Thomas.  A "shape train" craft and our wooden train sets (as well as a table with library promotional materials).  As the craft was my idea I got to man that station.  Rachel had pulled in all the train sets from the branch libraries, so she supervised the train play.

I arrived about 9:30 AM to set up...it was a little tricky because we couldn't be in front of any store or block walk ways etc.  So we ended up having two completely separate areas.

The event started at 11 AM but by 10:10 (when we had finished setting up) the line was forming.  By 10:30 we were fully engaged with children and families.

Here are some pictures from the event

They had almost 800 people go through the line to see Thomas...however, because there was such a huge turn out they closed the line at 12:30 so that all that were in line could make it through before Thomas had to leave at 3.  We found many families just visiting our stations because either the line was too long or the line had been closed.

It was a a delightfully chaotic event!  Hooray for Thomas!