Rocket Builders Celebrating Apollo

This Summer, of course, marks the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11.

To commemorate the mission, let's bookend today's anniversary of perhaps the most vital part of the mission--returning safely to Earth--with last week's anniversary of the initial launch.

On July 16th, the Natrona County Public Library, in conjunction with the Casper Planetarium, hosted children on the lawn to build their own rockets to celebrate the launch of Apollo 11.

While there, my children and my niece were interviewed on the news!

My son and daughter on the evening news...alongside their cousin with the evil stare!

Here's a photograph of the rockets they built:

They really zoom!

Wyoming Library Leadership Institute - 2019

This year's Wyoming Library Leadership Institute focused on the future of the Institute: how to ensure its services keep progressing and how to strengthen its impact on communities throughout Wyoming and beyond.

Past Graduates collaborated on fortifying the Institute's mission, vision, and organizational structure, its communication strategies, its regional networking capabilities, and its prospects for funding.

As a team, we established a firm foundation for carrying such vital work forward, in order to make certain the Institute continues to help librarians all across Wyoming lead their communities toward excellence.

It wasn't two days of constant work, of course. We had the chance to meet up with old acquaintances and meet new friends from Institutes across the years. Also, Jep Enck of Enck Resources facilitated some intriguing discussions, helping attendees examine their leadership acumen and strategize methods for sharpening their skill sets as leaders in all sorts of situations. 

Our collated collection of librarians also had the opportunity--after enjoying dinner at Pizza Carrello--to take a walking tour of downtown Gillette and learn some of its fascinating history from Mary Kelley of the Campbell County Historical Society, topping off the evening with ice cream and ghost stories!


Our appreciation to Campbell County Public Library for hosting, also to La Quinta of Gillette for putting up us out-of-towners.

Special thanks to Johanna Tuttle for all her hard work in coordinating this year's Institute!

And as always, thanks to Chris Van Burgh for her inspiring dedication to the Institute and to Wyoming's Libraries and Librarians!

Photograph courtesy of Chris Van Burgh
(And taken by a gracious employee of the Campbell County Library whose name I did not quite catch...
but later found out was Kevin Kauffman.)