The St. James Police Department is sponsoring a new story time event at the James Memorial Library. “Sensory Story Time” is a monthly event that is open to individuals of all ages and …
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The St. James Police Department is sponsoring a new story time event at the James Memorial Library. “Sensory Story Time” is a monthly event that is open to individuals of all ages and disabilities.
The event will include a story, and then a related make-and-take craft that participants take home with them. Events will also feature sensory-friendly modifications and aim to create a welcoming, judgment-free environment.
St. James Police Clerk Laurie Lambeth, who will host the story times, said they are meant to create a safe, positive environment for special needs individuals that they may not find elsewhere.
“We want to just kind of bridge the gap because this time of year, school’s in session, so they have story times at school, and then the library has a homeschool story hour, and so there’s just not anything there for the special needs community, so we’re just kind of filling in a gap,” Lambeth said.
The story times are geared towards special needs individuals of all ages, but everyone is welcome. The program has taken steps to create a calm, safe, and sensory-friendly environment.
“We are going to make it as sensory-friendly as possible,” said Lambeth. “We’re going to have the lights down. We’re going to have fidget toys. We’re going to do some music and movement, and they can move around during the story. They don’t have to sit still.”
Sensory Story Time events will be held in the James Memorial Library’s back room, with the back door closed, so that parents and caretakers don’t have to worry.
Visitors to the program will also make a take-home craft. The first story time is monster-themed, and participants will be able to create their own monster out of craft materials.
Lambeth said Sensory Story Time is her way of giving back to the community.
“We love our community, and we love giving back,” Lambeth said. “We saw there was a need, and so we decided to fulfill it. We are a small town. We know everybody in town, and we just felt like we could benefit from helping in this area. So we decided to jump on board and start having story time.”
Sensory Story Times events will be held monthly at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 22, Oct. 13, Nov. 10 and Dec. 10 in the back room of the James Memorial Library.
