Diagon Alley comes to Holladay
Jul 25, 2017 11:57AM ● By Kelly Cannon
Two girls create wands during a Harry Potter themed event. The different Diagon Alley shops at different libraries were leading up to the OWL Camp in West Jordan. (Kelly Cannon/City Journals)
By Kelly Cannon | [email protected]
On July 6, Holladay children had a chance to experience the magic of Harry Potter during a special wand-making craft day at the Holladay Library. Part of several activity days, the different shops of Diagon Alley at different county libraries led up to a special OWL Camp at the Viridian Center in West Jordan.
Ollivander’s wand-making shop at Holladay was open all day for families to come in and make their own wands using wood dowels and other materials.
“We’ve got various pieces that they can choose and lots of different craft items that they can be as creative as they want,” said Heidi-Marie Anderson, the youth services librarian at the Holladay Library “It’s actually a part of our maker cart. We just replaced some of the items with wand-making materials because we’ve been doing a maker cart all throughout the summer as well.”
The Diagon Alley shops functioned as a way to expand the OWL Camp that was held July 10–15.
“A lot of people apply and some receive their OWL and they get to go,” Anderson said. “But you had to be 11 to 18 to be able to go and Harry Potter fans are all ages and so this was a way to be able to stretch out the ages that can participate, families who would like to be there or people who didn’t make it into OWL Camp.”
The various shops included Pottage’s Cauldron Shop in Herriman, the Magical Menagerie in Bingham Creek, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes at Hunter, Jokes and Pranks: OWL Camp Prep in Sandy, Sock Puppet Pets at Tyler and U-No-Poo Craft and Scramble in West Jordan.
The OWL Camp at the Viridian Event Center was a week-long summer camp; each day corresponded to a day in the Harry Potter books. Classes were set up to look like Hogwarts, and kids attended different classes, such as potions and charms, that were based on science, technology, engineering, art or math.
“They will be separated into the four houses and those houses will be the ones going between classes,” Anderson said. “At one point, they may be playing Quidditch outside, doing a scavenger hunt in the library that has to do with the year. They’ll be seeing things throughout the day that have to do with the year, like there might be a three-headed dog or a dragon.”
At the end of each day when the families come to pick up the campers, they can go to Hogsmeade and go to various shops as a way for the rest of the family to get the camp experience.
July was the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Harry Potter novels. The Salt Lake County Library Services holds different Harry Potter events throughout the year.
“We do a Yule Ball every year and that’s very popular, so we’re trying to stretch it out to have it a bit more STEM related. We’re hoping it will be annual,” Anderson said. “It’s always great to have a fandom and to be able to share it with others, especially at the library because the library is a central point for fandoms. It’s a way to make friends with others and be able to tie in actual education with a fandom, with the library.”
To learn more about different activities by Salt Lake County Library Services, visit calendar.slcolibrary.org.
On July 6, Holladay children had a chance to experience the magic of Harry Potter during a special wand-making craft day at the Holladay Library. Part of several activity days, the different shops of Diagon Alley at different county libraries led up to a special OWL Camp at the Viridian Center in West Jordan.
Ollivander’s wand-making shop at Holladay was open all day for families to come in and make their own wands using wood dowels and other materials.
“We’ve got various pieces that they can choose and lots of different craft items that they can be as creative as they want,” said Heidi-Marie Anderson, the youth services librarian at the Holladay Library “It’s actually a part of our maker cart. We just replaced some of the items with wand-making materials because we’ve been doing a maker cart all throughout the summer as well.”
The Diagon Alley shops functioned as a way to expand the OWL Camp that was held July 10–15.
“A lot of people apply and some receive their OWL and they get to go,” Anderson said. “But you had to be 11 to 18 to be able to go and Harry Potter fans are all ages and so this was a way to be able to stretch out the ages that can participate, families who would like to be there or people who didn’t make it into OWL Camp.”
The various shops included Pottage’s Cauldron Shop in Herriman, the Magical Menagerie in Bingham Creek, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes at Hunter, Jokes and Pranks: OWL Camp Prep in Sandy, Sock Puppet Pets at Tyler and U-No-Poo Craft and Scramble in West Jordan.
The OWL Camp at the Viridian Event Center was a week-long summer camp; each day corresponded to a day in the Harry Potter books. Classes were set up to look like Hogwarts, and kids attended different classes, such as potions and charms, that were based on science, technology, engineering, art or math.
“They will be separated into the four houses and those houses will be the ones going between classes,” Anderson said. “At one point, they may be playing Quidditch outside, doing a scavenger hunt in the library that has to do with the year. They’ll be seeing things throughout the day that have to do with the year, like there might be a three-headed dog or a dragon.”
At the end of each day when the families come to pick up the campers, they can go to Hogsmeade and go to various shops as a way for the rest of the family to get the camp experience.
July was the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Harry Potter novels. The Salt Lake County Library Services holds different Harry Potter events throughout the year.
“We do a Yule Ball every year and that’s very popular, so we’re trying to stretch it out to have it a bit more STEM related. We’re hoping it will be annual,” Anderson said. “It’s always great to have a fandom and to be able to share it with others, especially at the library because the library is a central point for fandoms. It’s a way to make friends with others and be able to tie in actual education with a fandom, with the library.”
To learn more about different activities by Salt Lake County Library Services, visit calendar.slcolibrary.org.
