By Hayley Ferguson

Medicine Hat Public Library receives grant to upgrade children’s area

Jun 17, 2019 | 9:50 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – At a free BBQ that saw over 500 people, the Medicine Hat Public Library announced that it has received a $74,300 “Community Spaces” grant from South Country Co-op.

That money will be going towards upgrading the children’s library and creating a developmental play space.

Chief librarian Ken Feser, says that the space, which is set to start construction in late fall, will include a two level play castle for kids to be active, as well as play stations, a giant tablet for games, and new seating.

Feser says that he hopes that the library becomes even more of a destination for families once it opens in the new year

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“There is no free indoor play structure in Medicine Hat. That’s what we discovered when we were putting this grant proposal together.” He continued. “And it’s just an obvious thing in a winter city such as ours. People need things to do during the winter.”

According to the Library’s annual report, in 2018, the library conducted 126 school visits reaching 2,743 children.

They also host many events for even younger children.

“Children are definitely one of the core constituents for public library service. What we do here with preschool story time and picture books and everything.” Feser said. “It’s really important to build pre literacy skills. And there’s a lot of research right now that shows that kids learn best when they’re moving, socializing, imaginative play. So this new equipment just fits in with that sort of early childhood development mandate that we have.”

Feser also announced that the library is working on trying to create better parking at the library, saying that they want to make it very convenient for families.