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Coming off the successful close of the third annual One World program, The Mary Baker Eddy Library at the Christian Science Plaza announced that they will increase reservations for the 2009 season. The summer enrichment program provides Boston area children aged 4-10 free access to culture and the arts. Non-profit organizations such as Boston’s Salvation Army, Dorchester’s Washington Heights Tenants Association, the YMCA of Greater Boston, the Boys and Girls Club of Charlestown, Jamaica Plain’s Kids Art, and Cambridge’s East End House helped build an audience totaling over 1,100 in six weeks.
Along with local residents and tourists, children of all ages enjoyed live performances including an international puppet show, hip-hop dance lessons, and Haitian-inspired percussion rhythms. Children participated in craft activities linked to the Library’s historical collections; decorating scrapbooks, designing journals, and even making their own stained glass globes just like the Mapparium®! They explored a historical exhibit with “prizes” for finding correct answers about nineteenth-century transportation. They discovered the freedom of writing poetry with an oversized magnetic poetry wall. The children learned that poetry was one of Mary Baker Eddy’s favorite means of communication as well as being a creative medium in today’s world, found in lyrics or nursery rhymes.
Children walked through the famous three-story Mapparium as part of the program, enjoyed face painting, and experienced the “museum” environment as a fun and welcoming place. “Our hope is that these children will return with their parents and guardians not just here but to other museums and seek out all the wonderful educational opportunities this city has to offer,” says Lesley Pitts, Executive Manager and President of the Library.
Each visit of the six week program ended with every child receiving an age-appropriate book donated by the Library’s generous sponsors: Candlewick Press, Cradles to Crayons, Hachette Book Group USA, Houghton Mifflin, Penguin Group USA, and Simon and Schuster. Other sponsors to the One World program include Magnetic Poetry, Michaels Stores, Inc., and The Charles J. Wyly Jr. Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas.
