A collection of amazingly realistic Star Wars characters attracted plenty of attention Saturday, but it was the themed crafts and activities that kept attendees busy for hours at the 95th Street Library on Star Wars Reads Day.
Rita Moore of Naperville said she brought her 7-year-old daughter Olivia last year, and she begged to come back again. This year, she was dressed as Star Wars heroine Rey.
“I love all the arts and crafts we can do and interacting with the characters,” Moore said. “It’s a big thing. It’s getting all the kids interested in reading and motivated to come to the library.”
Star Wars Reads is a celebration of reading and Star Wars every October that is endorsed by Disney and inspires events around the world, including Saturday’s fifth annual extravaganza at the 95th Street library. The event featured more than two dozen different activities for fans of all ages.
“We definitely draw a crowd we don’t always see,” Library Manager Ellen Conlin said. “For some, they may be people who are in the building for the first time. It shows them the resources we have all the time, and they may become regular users.”
Both adults and kids checked out the droids operated by the CHI2-D2 Droid Builders’ Club. They also lined up to get pictures with the volunteers from the Midwest Garrison 501st Legion, a club devoted to dressing as Star Wars heroes and villains in movie-quality costumes.
Many children also dressed as Star Wars characters or brought Star Wars toys. Zachary Partain, 8, and his friend, Nikita Marigrint, 7, enjoyed a lightsaber battle in the aisles between the books.
“Everything goes today,” Conlin said.
Partain’s mother, Suzie Wehrwein of Naperville, said she heard about the event on Facebook.
“It’s fun. It’s better than I thought,” Wehrwein said. “I like Star Wars, and I can hopefully convince them to check out a book while we’re here.”
The library enticed visitors to do just that by displaying hundreds of Star Wars books and DVDs on a large shelf by the exit.
“I look forward to it. This amount of people visiting us all on one day is exciting,” Conlin said. “I like to see the cool things our staff does, and the difficult crafts — seeing parents, especially dads, doing crafts with the hot glue gun. You see a lot of dads here today.”
Patrick Esper made a Lego R2-D2 mosaic with his kids and said his whole family is a fan of the popular movie franchise. “The themes are ageless. It’s something I can bond with all of my children, something for everybody,” Esper said.
Other parents watched or helped their kids make Yoda and Princess Leia headbands out of construction paper, Porg and Chewbacca puppets out of paper bags, and a BB-8 out of paper plates.
Dozens of staff members and volunteers from all of the library’s branches spent days preparing activities, decorating nearly every wall and ceiling and moving furniture in anticipation of an expected crowd of 5,000 visitors.
“More decorations are added every year. It gets bigger every year. It does seem very crowded, and it’s raining, to our benefit,” Conlin said. “If you had a soccer game and it was canceled, you can be here.”
New activities added this year included Star Wars bingo, a Star Wars escape room, virtual reality goggles featuring space and Star Wars images, a recording of your voice sounding like Darth Vader, a sensory story time for children with sensory issues, and a quiet Jedi meditation room.
Jedi training, Star Wars card and dice games, and vendor booths selling comic books and other items were among the popular returning offerings.
“Star Wars is coming to life here,” Conlin said. “Adults come to see the characters and the droids. I like the amount of kids coming in costume. It’s like a second Halloween … I saw a grandma who didn’t speak English with her grandkids who were explaining what they were making from the movie. The family aspect is awesome to me.”
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Diane Moca is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.