Cookie Club Goodness

In another in our library's series of "stealth" or "passive" programs, we developed a Cookie Club initiative in December and January to encourage families to use the library often during this often slow library-use season. Kids up to age 10 could join up by simply picking up a little business-card-sized "Cookie Club" card.  Then each time they checked out books they got a stamp on their card and a paper cookie to put their name on and could put in a "cookie jar" on the wall.

There were no sign-ups and no tracking beyond pre-counting the different cookie shapes each week and figuring out how many kids came in based on the number given away.  Kids, in fact, kept track of things by coming to the desk on their own with their club cards. And if they forgot them, we still gave them their paper cookie to sign and double stamped them the next week.

It gave us a great chance to visit with the kids, give them high fives and encouragement and ooh and aah over the materials they selected.  It had virtually no set-up beyond designing a little card (using Word and a business card template) and putting up the giant cookie jars. It was easy to encourage kids to join as they used the self-check and we were pleasantly surprised to see we had.over 400 Club visits.

The Club just culminated in a Cookie Party. We shared a few cookie stories, served cookies and had a visit from the Mouse from Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (we rented the costume from Costume Specialists). The crowds had fun and so did we. Thanks to the Colfax Library in WI for the original idea nudge!

It was a sweet treat of an easy and fun two months!