Now in its fourth year, the North Logan City Library’s Teen Marvel Program invites youth who participate to earn points, redeemable in late April, for tickets to the latest Marvel movie. This year’s movie, Avengers: Infinity War, opens on Friday, April 27, and teens who earn tickets will have the opportunity to view the film during a private showing in a theater rented by the library. The concept behind the Teen Marvel Program is to create a positive, constructive and enjoyable environment for youth where they can work to achieve a goal.
Enrollment began on Jan. 1 and will continue through the second to last week of April. A ticket to Avengers: Infinity War is worth 100 program points. “They have four months to earn these points, but we don’t want to turn any kids away,” said Paul Daybell, associate director of the North Logan City Library and teen programming coordinator. “The goal is to kind of make it as easy as possible, and we always do things at the end, so people that might only sign up with three weeks to go are able to come in and earn enough points.”
Weekly teen activities take place at the library after regular business hours, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. each Thursday. “We do them after hours so we have full control of the library and we can make as much noise as we want,” said Daybell. Teen programming features a variety of opportunities to learn and play, including technology training, video games, book clubs, movie nights and interactive games. Daybell said the most popular activity in the past had taken place in partnership with the Logan Library. “We play a game called humans versus zombies where we bust out a couple crates of Nerf guns, and they run around the library shooting each other with Nerf weapons,” he said. Teens who attend events on Thursday evenings can earn five points each week. Every item they check out from the library is also worth a point, and performing service for the library allows teens to earn even more.
For example, youth who sign up as members of the library’s Teen Advisory Board are awarded 20 points for their involvement. “Basically, kids can participate in any library-related service project or event to earn points,” said Daybell. “The Teen Advisory Board plans one big service project early each year, and then we create other service opportunities for people who are still trying to earn points at the end. There are about a dozen ways to earn points, and almost 2,000 service hours were logged. The North Logan City Library’s Teen Marvel Program doubled in size during its second year, growing from 40 enrolled participants to 80, and growing larger again in their third year. The library already is seeing significant growth again this year and continues to welcome teens grades 6-12 from throughout Cache Valley.
Registration is available at the library’s main circulation desk. For more information, visit www.northloganlibrary.org/teens or email the Teen Advisors, Paul Daybell and Brittany Benson, at [email protected].