{"id":84763,"date":"2025-07-23T02:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T02:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/84763\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T02:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T02:23:08","slug":"epl-on-the-fly-offers-creative-summer-fun-in-evanston-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/84763\/","title":{"rendered":"EPL On the Fly! offers creative summer fun in Evanston parks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for our free newsletters<\/strong> to have Evanston news delivered directly to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Laura Florian\u2019s traveling library brings books and creative activities to kids all over Evanston every summer.<\/p>\n

On Tuesdays, she sets up shop from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. outside the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center. On Wednesdays, you can find her again from 11:30 to 1:30 in Mason Park. She wraps up her circuit from 3 to 5 p.m. at Elks Park on Thursdays, then returns to do it all again the next week.<\/p>\n

Florian, the Evanston Public Library\u2019s youth engagement librarian, runs EPL On the Fly! three days a week for eight weeks of the summer, usually from early June through early August. She brings creative projects and cartons of books to locations across the city to engage youth in free, stimulating activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can have 25 kids in the space,\u201d Florian said. \u201cSometimes I\u2019ve had an intern, but not for a long time. Mostly it\u2019s just me by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program began more than a decade ago, originally under the name \u201cMaker Kids in the Park,\u201d and it evolved into its current version after the pandemic. Florian, as the program leader, chooses locations, times and activities carefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go to where the free lunches are,\u201d Florian said, referring to the city\u2019s summer free cold breakfast and lunch service<\/a><\/strong> for youth. \u201cI bring books to give away and do the same craft or same activity at each park each week. It takes a lot of preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, the craft of choice was do-it-yourself kaleidoscopes. Curious participants colored and decorated paper circles to their liking, then Florian assisted them in assembling a prism-powered instrument with their own design at the forefront.<\/p>\n

Despite the chaos of water guns and playground antics around her, Florian\u2019s table was an oasis of focused creation and thoughtful conversation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Florian designs different crafts and activities for every week, bringing art and STEM work into heavily-trafficked neighborhood parks. Credit: Alexis Rogers<\/p>\n

At Fleetwood-Jourdain, the Summer Discovery camp run by the city aligns with EPL On the Fly!, drawing lots of interested participants to Florian\u2019s booth every Tuesday. She\u2019s been running the program long enough to build a bond with kids across the community who visit her table or participate in school programs that she runs during the academic year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of continuity,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of the kids know me because I see them at their schools during the school year. There\u2019s a lot of kids that I\u2019ve watched grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

EPL On the Fly! continues through Wednesday, Aug. 6. The last Tuesday workshop is Aug. 5, and the last Thursday event is the week before that on July 31. <\/p>\n

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\n\tRelated Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for our free newsletters to have Evanston news delivered directly to your inbox! Laura Florian\u2019s traveling…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":84764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,57378,171,57379,57380,57381,57382,57383,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-84763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-elks-park","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-epl-on-the-fly","12":"tag-evanston-public-library","13":"tag-fleetwood-jourdain-community-center","14":"tag-laura-florian","15":"tag-mason-park","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114900173035834354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}