Kassandra Mathews hung in the back of the discovering music class at Anythink Wright Farms in Thornton with her parents and nephew. She held two red sticks and intermittently clapped them together when she got into one of the songs being played or sung by some of her friends in the front of the room.
Mathews, 26, can’t sing songs herself — she prefers sign language — but her mother, Karen, said that listening to the music and visiting with people from other day programs around the metro area has made a huge difference in her daughter’s life since they started coming to the library’s AnyAbility program for cognitively or intellectually disabled adults last summer.
“Kassandra needed more outings and interactions, and we weren’t doing activities like this with her because of her health issues. She has a rare genetic disorder called Noonan syndrome,” said Karen Mathews. “She wasn’t getting enough interaction, and this was a way for me to make sure she gets that. She loves the crafts and music. She also sometimes likes the story time, especially when they do it with sign language. She is verbal, but she can’t communicate a lot of things.”
The monthly AnyAbility program launched at the Anythink library system’s flagship location in north Thornton in spring 2014.
Suzanne McGowan, branch manager at Anythink Wright Farms, said the impetus for developing AnyAbility was that the growing number of people from day programs around Thornton were dropping in the library regularly for lunches and gatherings.
Every day, an average of 1,000 people visit Wright Farms.
“These groups are trying to get out into the communities as best they can, and unfortunately what we were seeing is that they would use the library space but not necessarily use our services,” McGowan said. “We wanted them to know that they’re welcome and since then it’s been really great because they’ve gotten to know the staff and become more comfortable with us. Most of them have library cards, they check out books and magazines and DVDs. Some of them come to the library on their own. It’s been a really positive experience for everyone.”
Since its launch, the program has grown in every way, and library officials are working to expand it to other branches in the Aynthink system.
“What’s been the most exciting thing are the partnerships that have developed out of this,” McGowen said. “We did a boxing class in July and we’ve done theater groups and other related sessions with organizations from all over. The fact that it’s grown in popularity for more customers as well as our staff, and partnerships have come out of this as well is very exciting.”
AnyAbility has also developed a culture of inclusiveness at Wright Farms that directly reflects that overall model of Anythink.
“When we became Anythink, we very intentionally created a model called the experience library that has everything to do with creating amazing experiences for people at the library from that sense of hospitality, that sense of warmth, that sense of generosity,” said Pam Sandlian-Smith, director of Anythink Libraries. “Of course, we’re carrying that over to our planning for 2017.”
In February, the Anythink library system will launch a new program called the One Kind Word Project. Anythink is partnering with organizations throughout Adams County to spread kindness and compassion throughout the community.
For the program, Anythink customers will be invited to write positive and uplifting letters to strangers that will be distributed through local organizations like food banks, outreach programs and senior living centers. In creating these cards, customers are encouraged to explore their creativity through screen printing, embossing and calligraphy workshops with local artists.
“This is a huge effort in February for the library to be the catalyst or the idea of pay it forward and random acts of kindness. We’re going to be creating situations where our community and staff can send kind words to our community and support them,” Sandlian-Smith said. “You can never have enough generosity and thoughtfulness and kindness.”