Washington library holding game nights

WASHINGTON — The Washington Public Library is kicking off a new Thursday night summer tradition: board game nights from 5-7:30 p.m.

“Our director was thinking that we need to have something for farmers market nights,” Adult Services Librarian Tammy Valentine said. “People can come in and get out of the heat if they needed and have a family event. Game night was the perfect thing because it wasn’t a structured, time-sensitive program.”

Valentine said the program’s flexibility would be a key point of appeal to families.

“Because (of) the farmers market, there’s a lot of activities, a lot of things going on,” she said. “This way people can come in when it suits their schedule for the evening … it allows people that flexibility of what they want their Thursday evening to be.”

The library will put out its collection of games for the event, covering a wide range of age groups to maximize interest across age groups.

“It will have items for the younger kids, middle school, older adults,” Valentine said. “It’s just something that will add to the farmers market night, because we want to be a part of that if we can.”

While the new event is, for now, a weekly program limited to farmers market season, Valentine said she hoped to expand it as interest grew.

“We’re not sure yet how it’s going to evolve,” she said. “We’re hoping that it will keep going, and I’m sure eventually we would like to have maybe a board game club, chess club, card game club. Hopefully the interest will be there.”

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