The screening of the documentary film “The Lost Boys of Sudan” was a huge success! We really had no idea how many people would show up, so at about 15 minutes before the event was scheduled to start, we were happy to see around 20 people in the room. Then, between 6:15 and 6:30, I’d say around 60-70 more people walked in and the room was beginning to feel crowded. People were still coming in when we finally started the film at about 6:40pm. We had 100 chairs set up in the community room and we still had to bring about 20 more to accommodate everyone so I’d say the total number in the audience was 120+. Around 20 or so of those in the audience were from a local middle school. I found out that a teacher, who was also there, offered her students a deal: come watch the film and you don’t have to do homework for a few days, or something like that. Brilliant!
After the film ended, many of the audience members came up to me and my colleagues and told us how much they enjoyed the event and expressed their thanks. I gotta say, even though I feel like I help people and do positive things for the community on a daily basis, having 100+ people in the Library for an event like this was extremely encouraging. I felt like it was proof of how public libraries can bring a community together and contribute to the common good. It felt very good to be a librarian 