RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — Darth Vader and a Light Saber duel. No, wasn’t May the 4th. The community celebrated “Star Wars” Reads Day at the Paul A. Biane Library over Memorial Day weekend.
“A lot of light sabers, a lot of force, I like this stuff,” said Rafael, a 9th grader from Fontana. “I get a lot of autographs from them. I get to show that I love Star Wars a lot.”
The special event was held in conjunction with the anniversary of the release date of the first Star Wars film, which happened on May 25.
“It really is an outreach for people who might not come to a conventional story time,” said Allen Callaci, a literary librarian at the Baine library. “Just to know that the library is here. Here is what we do. Here’s what we offer. Come on in!”
There was a costume contest for the little ones–and the older kids as well. Attendees dressed as their favorite Star Wars characters.
“I got some fabric and kind of made it all myself,” said attendee Riley Smith from Rancho Cucamonga. “I winged it on what my character is. I’m still working on my back story. I took some of my mom’s stuff and pieced it all together. He’s supposed to be my Jedi master. He teaches me stuff.”
“We want to get reluctant readers, particularly boys between the ages of seven to 10,” Callaci explained. “They might not come to a library to see me read a story. They will come to a library to hear Darth Vader read a story. Once they are in the library, they will see all of the Star Wars books we have.”
Author Ian Doerscher talked about his best-selling book, William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. He also took questions from the audience members.
“This is an X-Wing Pilot from the first movie,” said Tom Piedmont with the rebels group of the 501st Legion. “It goes with my car that is parked down at the end of the street, which is an X-Wing flavored art car.”
The Inland Empire Lego User Group brought its Star Wars display to the lobby of the library.
“Today, I brought the Ewok Village, which is a set from Lego,” said Suzy Lentchner, founder of the group. “It’s really cool. It’s got a lot of really neat stuff. It’s got this bridge right here. It’s got these turrets that turn. Here’s C-3PO sitting on a throne over here, we have R2-D2, over here Luke Skywalker, Hans Solo, Princess Leia.”
The evening wrapped up with a screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the latest film of the franchise.
“We’ve got our summer reading program,” the literacy librarian added. “That’s going to go on until the end of July. Win prizes, performers, magicians, jugglers, all kinds of great acts all summer long. We also have cultural arts nights coming up. We just do a ton of stuff.”
The special event was produced in association with Star Wars‘ May the 4th Be With You program.
The Paul A. Biane library is located at 12505 Cultural Center Dr, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739 within the Victoria Gardens shopping center. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed on Sundays. For more information, visit http://www.cityofrc.us/cityhall/lib/default.asp.
