Cedar Falls Public Library invites teens to explore community features on Discover Days

The Cedar Falls Public Library holds Teen Discovery Day each month and allows local teens to explore and learn more about their community.

During January of this year the Cedar Falls Library held its first Teen Discovery Day. During Teen Discovery Day, local teens get to explore and learn more about their community. The program allows teens to survey local parks, businesses, historical sites and much more. Meghan Blackford, the teen librarian at the Cedar Falls Public Library, planned these events and hopes to nurture the connection between teens and their local community.

“Community connection is deeply important to me, and I wanted to make sure I was doing my best to share that with the community of teens I serve.  Plus, it’s just really fun getting out of the library and experiencing something new in a different setting!” Blackford said.

When coming up with the idea for Teen Discovery Day, Blackford said she wanted to share the fun and important places that make the community special. Blackford, growing up in Cedar Falls herself, began looking for and brainstorming places in which to take teens to. 

“I look for locations that are fun, have a bit of an educational quality to them and that are different from each other, and since all library programs are free, I wanted to be able to assist teens in exploring the community in a way that isn’t a financial burden to them,” Blackford said.

Next month in April, Blackford plans to take local teens to the Dick Young Greenhouse to learn about their greenhouse system and setting up plants for spring, and, despite the fact that the program will be paused during the summer, Blackford plans to take teens to numerous places in the future. Places such as Dark Vassal Gaming, NinjaU, Double Tap Arcade, as well as a community clean up event are all on her list.

Along with Teen Discovery Day, the Cedar Falls Public Library holds many other teen-related events, and most are free. For more information about such events, head to the Cedar Falls Public Library website and use their navigation window and click on programs and events. Also, to see more specifically regarding what Teen Discovery Day is about, check out the recently posted pictures of March’s Teen Discovery Day on our Instagram @cfhs__news.