To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library, Creatacor has teamed up with the library once again for a community event like no other. This time the idea was to expand the Newel Town Family by three members. Tom Lemery, President of Creatacor and Alex Gutelius, Library Director, came up with a great way to incorporate the the children of the community into this fun project. They solicited design ideas and asked the kids to submit drawings based on the current Newel People that reside in the Children’s Library. But there was one twist, the new Newel Friends had to be constructed of all common, recycled and recyclable household goods.
The entries that were received were nothing less than fabulous. I am sure Mr. Lemery and Ms. Gutelius had a very difficult time choosing entries to be used to help design the three new Newel Friends. Kids from ages 4-16 participated in the exercise and the final designs put together by Mr. Lemery really brought the children’s work to life. Some of the materials used for the project included Yellow Pages for hair, plastic soda bottles stuffed with shredded newspaper for arms, a recycled tire for a belt and soda bottle caps for buttons and jewelry. The end result was some very “green”, very hip looking Newel Friends.
[Children’s Newel People Drawings]
[Creatacor’s Newel People Concepts]
Once the designs were finalized the Newel Friends went into production. The Creatacor production staff was asked to think outside the box as they assembled the latest Newel Buddies. For sure, this was not our typical trade show display or event set. We had to figure out how to laminate the phone book pages, make them hair-like and attach them to the “head” of the newel post. Holes had to be drilled for the compact fluorescent light bulbs and arrange them to create a red “curly top” newel friend. And of course they needed hands, which consisted of recycled plastic spatulas and spoons. The staff had a great time with the project and once they were all constructed we built a small pedestal for them and installed them in the library. The new Newel Friends can be found at the library at the top of the stairs just outside the Children’s Library.
[Creatacor’s Newel People Construction]
[Newel People in the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library]
The library will be holding a Newel Friends Reception on June 16th @ 7pm at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library to debut the new “Green Family” and recognize the students who contributed to the designs.
Creatacor president Tom Lemery, would like the students who’s entries were instrumental in determining the final design: “Your creative suggestions were right on target. You completely grasped the idea in the spirit of the Newel People living at the Clifton Park Halfmoon Library. Your drawings were imaginative, innovative and inspirational in the development of the “Green Family”. Congratulations to you all. Great job!
