Charles City Public Library hosts Instrument Petting Zoo

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Public library was a bit louder than normal on Wednesday afternoon as about 70 kids came over to play with a variety of musical instruments for the library’s Wonderful Wednesday Instrument Petting Zoo.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Alex Lafrenz of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony. “This is a great opportunity to kind of show kids what an orchestra is like.”

Lafrenz brought up about two dozen different instruments for the event. Strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion were all on the table, giving the kids an opportunity to blow, strum and bang on for some hands-on experience with real musical instruments.

“It was a good group of kids,” said Lafrenz. “We had some great questions from some of the kids that are already in music lessons.”

Lafrenze hopes that the experience can help spark an interest in music from an early age, encouraging kids to join the music program in their schools.

The instrument petting zoo is the latest event in a month of “Wonderful Wednesdays” that the library has hosted to give kids an opportunity to learn about something new.

The final event for the month will be held next Wednesday with the Absolute Science Foam Party, where kids will be able to play with foam starting at 1 p.m.

“I’m excited for that too,” said Library Director Annette Dean. “I like to get messy.”