The Forest Lawn Blog has been up and running since October 2011, we've been live for about a year and few months! Wooo Hoo!

When people ask me "What happened in 2012?", I usually answer "It was all a blur..." However, now that we have this little blog, I thought I might take this opportunity to highlight some of the events that has happened in the past year.

• Community Garden: The Books 'n Worms Community Garden was officially launched on June 21st. With our ground breaking celebration, there is now a Community Garden in the Forest Lawn area. By mid-July people had a chance to harvest some zucchini, lettuce, beans and radishes. I can't wait till Summer 2013 to be able to walk through the garden again! This will be THE MEETING PLACE in Forest Lawn!

• Teen Afterschool: A program geared towards teens between the ages of 13-17 to explore, learn, and have fun outside of school hours. The program has been a great success in attracting teens of all different ages and skill levels. The library has offered programs from Yoga, Zumba, Cookie Decorating, Wii, Xbox, Drawing, and Drama just to name a few.

• First Ever Hunger Games Challenge: Our teens were starving for a hunger games challenge, and we did just that to meet their needs! We made our own little cornucopia challenge incorporating themes and resources from the novel. Since the Hunger Games was a great success, we came up with Hunger Games Part 2! In this challenge the teens had to reenact a scene from Catching Fire in along with learning how to write a script, design costumes and much more!

• Taste of Cultures: Every year the Taste of Culture has attracted over hundreds of people throughout the community. This was a great opportunity for everyone to learn about the diverse culture we have within this neighborhood. It was by far my favorite event to look forward to each year. I loved trying all different types of ethic food, and their outfits were amazing!

• Refugee Experience Series: The Refugee Experience Series has really taught the teens what it's like to be a Refugee. Our biggest event was a simulation of a Refugee Camp. Even now when I see the teens they talk about how they really enjoyed that process and that they gained so much from the program. We even had the honor to have Carol Huynh share her own personal Refugee Experience.

We hope you all had a chance to participate in some of these events. If you have a story about the library in 2012 and would like to share, we would love to hear it in the comments!

Back by popular demand! After one short week, the Forest Lawn Library Winter Community Chain is already half-way around the branch. Last year, it started at the entrance to the branch and reached the fish tank, so our goal this year is to complete the circle. We’re already half-way there!

This is a wonderful way for you to add to your community spirit. Just come into the branch and ask one of us to see how you can be a "link" to the communtiy!

Might there be a way to continue this interactive activity throughout the year, with a different spin?

If you have any suggestions, please let us know in the comment area!

Did you know…?

-The first Forest Lawn Library was originally located at 33^rd Street and 17^th Avenue S.E

-On July 16 1973, the new Forest Lawn Library opened their doors to its beautiful new building and location at 4807-8^th Avenue S.E., which is also the location in which the current library resides

-As of October 1, 1975 the Forest Lawn Library had 25,000 books on the shelves. That’s like 1/6 of our collection today!!!

-Over 933,000 customer transactions at Forest Lawn Library in 2008

• The original Forest Lawn Library was built in 1962, one year after the town of Forest Lawn was annexed to the City of Calgary. In 1965 it was relocated to make room for a shopping centre.
• The first Forest Lawn Library was originally located at 33^rd Street and 17^th Avenue S.E
• The new Library opened in 1973 and was roughly half the size of the current facility. It boasted a theatre in the basement, with a capacity seating for over 150, a stage, and a projection room equipped with a 16 mm projector to show reel-to-reel films
• We even have a newspaper article documenting the library's opening from 1973!
• The first day of the newly expanded facility was February 2, 2004

Opened in 1973 and expanded in 2004, the Forest Lawn Library has become a great community asset and a centre of learning and enrichment. Its vibrant centre situated in an area that many residents and community partners consider it being the hub of the community.

The addition of The Community Literacy and Learning Centre supports literacy and lifelong learning for community residents. It promotes library use within the Greater Forest Lawn area, and contributes to preschool learning, development of literacy skills in school-aged children and ESL learners, and computer literacy for all ages.

The Forest Lawn Library has grown to be the hotspot for programs and community engaging events. Many users come to the library for purposes other than borrowing materials. Nowadays, it’s a key location for meetings, computer usage, socializing, gaming and much, much more.

Whether you’re a senior, adult, teen or a toddler, the Forest Lawn Library has something for everyone. Visit the Forest Lawn Library's blog, to find out what’s new and ongoing at the hotspot in the community!