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Virginia Aquarium offers double feature at Main Street Library

Aquarium play and touch tank at Main Street

Performers named Squidly Squire and P.T. Phylum dazzled an audience of 96 children and parents on July 14 at Main Street Library. The performers, representatives from the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach, used humor, costumes and puppets to educate the audience on the Chesapeake Bay. The free event was part of the Newport News Public Library System’s Summer Reading Program for children.

Senior Information Youth Services Specialist Liz Wright, far right, joins Newport News youth and performer P.T. Phylum (Laura Fuller), far left, in costumes to show an eager audience examples of the animal inhabitants of the Chesapeake Bay on July 14 at M

Performers named Squidly Squire and P.T. Phylum dazzled an audience of 96 children and parents on July 14 at Main Street Library. The performers, representatives from the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach, used humor, costumes and puppets to educate the audience on the Chesapeake Bay. The free event was part of the Newport News Public Library System’s Summer Reading Program for children.

Laughter filled the Library as Squidly, a zany, jovial character performed by Rachel Riesbeck, served as comic relief to P.T’s more serious talk about water consistency in the Bay, as well as the life that inhabits it. Laura Fuller portrayed P.T.

Children were given the opportunity to join the performers and put on the costumes of various animals including fiddler crabs, a giant clam, and more.

Liz Wright, senior information youth services specialist at Main Street Library, graciously donned faux feather wings, long yellow legs, and a long yellow beak, to create a giant heron.

After the performance, families and Library patrons were welcomed outside to the Virginia Aquarium’s Ocean in Motion truck, a large moving aquarium. The aquarium hosted a variety of fish, blow fish, and sea stars. Beside the truck, in the much-welcomed shade of a small tent, P.T. and Squidly manned a touch tank, where they continued to educate local youth about aquatic life in the Bay.

“It was cool to see all the aquariums on the truck … I really liked the shipwrecked one!” said Lauran Fureymoore of Newport News, age 13. “The burr fish had the most amazing eyes; they looked like gemstones!” she added.

The Summer Reading Program, an annual event, runs through July 31, and participants can sign up anytime. The Summer Reading Program is made possible by the Friends of the Newport News Public Library. For more information, visit http://www.nngov.com/library/resources/srp.
 

Article by Mike Wagner/Newport News Public Library System

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