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closeChildren compete, learn about chocolate at festival
Library’s first chocolate festival brings in more than a dozen boys and girls for games, activities, trivia and lots of chocolat
Roxanne Cooke
Last Saturday’s chocolate festival at the Sumner branch of the Pierce County Library was full of chocolate trivia, chocolate games and more than 20 chocolate-loving children.
“I like chocolate,” one boy said as he waited in line for a name tag.
“Good,” said Catherine O’Brien, youth services librarian. “You’re in the right place.”
O’Brien kicked off the event with a few rounds of the game “Hangman,” in which children guess letters to fill blank spaces drawn on the board. The topic was candy bar names.
Winners each won a candy bar, but O’Brien reassured the rest that they would soon sink their teeth into their own chocolate.
“Everybody goes home with chocolate,” she said, to squeals of delight.
Next, children got on their feet for a chocolate-eating race. The catch: They had to unwrap Hershey’s Kisses while wearing oven mitts before they could eat the candy. It proved to be tricky.
In another race, each team had to line up in a row and pass M&M’s candy to each other using only spoons. Dropped candy could not be picked up.
Finally, children sat down once again for a game of chocolate Jeopardy, where they learned the average American consumes approximately 11 pounds of chocolate a year.
Benjamin Larson, 9, said he enjoyed the “Hangman” game best but said he also learned a bit about chocolate during the trivia game.
“I learned that there’s a chocolate chili sauce,” he said.
Larson’s mom, Carol Larson, called the event “creative.”
“It looks like it’s fun,” she said.
Wendy Campbell, a Bonney Lake resident who brought her daughter to the event, admired the festival and quietly guessed answers with another parent during the Jeopardy game.
“I think it’s great,” Campbell said. “It’s challenging.”
Children each received a bag of candy as they left.
“I hope you learned something about chocolate,” O’Brien said.
Because this was the first incarnation of the chocolate event, O’Brien and Susan Marihugh, a reference librarian, briefly talked about what went well and what needed work.
“I thought it was fun,” O’Brien said. “They were into it.”
There are a few details to be worked out next year, she said. O’Brien and Marihugh agreed that they’ll do more physical activities and less trivia next time.
“Next year’s will be much better,” O’Brien said.
Still, it was a fun event with a good turnout, Marihugh said.
Other events that the librarians wanted to include but didn’t have time for included a chocolate taste test and chocolate-themed arts and crafts.