FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center hosts free Library program

Puppet show, touch tanks, crafts

About 150 children visited the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center on July 28 for puppets, stories, crafts and sea creatures. The free event was part of the Newport News Public Library System’s Summer Reading Program.

Outreach workers from the Virginia Aquarium present a puppet show on July 28 at the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center. The free event was part of the Newport News Public Library System’s Summer Reading Program. Photo by Mike Wagner/Newport News Public Li

About 150 children visited the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center on July 28 for puppets, stories, crafts and sea creatures. The free event was part of the Newport News Public Library System’s Summer Reading Program.

In the Center’s Ella Fitzgerald Theater, Virginia Aquarium Outreach Specialists Rachel Riesbeck and Domi Paxton performed a puppet show, while Outreach Coordinator Courtney Obland read aloud from a library book about a lonely fish in search of friends.

The show included “Big Al,” a large, gregarious fish, as well as a blowfish, and a flounder.

Riesbeck and Obland also discussed life in the Chesapeake Bay, while showing the audience a live spider crab, sea star and horseshoe crab.

After the puppet show, children were able to touch each animal and make their own stick puppet version of “Big Al.” Paper cut-outs of the gregarious fish were provided, as well as crayons, popsicle sticks and glue.

“We really enjoyed our visit, “ Obland said. “The kids are great, and we enjoy bringing our animals to them.”

This program was made possible through the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center's community outreach. The Pearl Bailey Library is a member of the Wickham Avenue Alliance, an active group of community organizations based in the Southeast Community of Newport News.

###