The Friends of the James Weldon Johnson Library held their annual Geography Bee, Wed., Aug. 12. The Bee was the last of a trinity of Bees. Spelling and mathematics Bees were held earlier in the summer.
Returning facilitator, Erica Hardison, guided school aged youth entering Kindergarten and grades 1 to 6 through the 196,940,000 square miles of the earth’s surface, heights and depths.
The spirit of the Bees encourages learning and studying during the summer while traditional schools are closed and promotes literacy in the winter, spring, and autumn. The Bees are one of two wings, which include the annual Literacy Festival held March on the grounds of the Johnson Branch Library and the Enoch Davis Center.
The focus on free books, along with facial painting, arts and crafts, spoken word, music appreciation through bucket drumming, storytelling, various contests, a community walk, entertainment and food for school aged youth and adults go far and wide to highlight literacy.
Now that the three Bees have left their hives, we encourage parents and guardian, aunts, uncles, grandparents and extended family members and neighbors to commit/recommit to take on the role of the “queen bee” or “worker bee,” by being a steward of a child’s education. Maybe even consider the library and the school as a part of the hive.
Whether you participated in the Bees personally or read the articles this summer, continue to foster literacy through spelling, mathematics and geography.
A special thanks to the St. Petersburg Library, the Masonic Lodge #109 and the historical home of the community library during the years of de facto segregation.
