In the fall of 2013, the Winneconne (WI) Community School District announced the exciting news that a production of The Wizard of Oz was coming to the local community in March 2014. The scale of this Wizard of Oz play would be unlike anything that our town had seen, so it was cause for a lot of excitement. It was also exciting for us as staff of Winneconne Public Library, as some of our children were involved with the play, as well as my dog, who was cast as Toto in the play. At our staff meeting in January, we started brainstorming in earnest as to how we could host a Wizard of Oz cast party. We also started the thought process of creating a month devoted exclusively to the Wizard of Oz, we came up with the idea of calling March "Follow the Yellow Brick Book Month.” We also always try to think of ways to partner with the community and have a “one hand washing the other” philosophy. With that in mind, we decided to update our collection of Wizard of Oz Books and prominently display them throughout the month, therefore creating circulation opportunities for our library. Part of our efforts to promote “Follow the Yellow Brick Book Month” used social media avenues, which included posting daily fun facts about the Wizard of Oz movie such as: Wizard of Oz Fun Fact:  Ray Bolger (The Scarecrow), Bert Lahr (The Cowardly Lion), and Jack Haley (The Tin Man) ate in their dressing rooms during breaks since their costumes frightened diners in the MGM cafeteria. As our ideas started coming to fruition, we kept in close contact with the Winneconne School District Superintendent Peggy Larson, and asked if she would like the Winneconne Public Library to be one of the ticket-selling locations. We also asked the play production to donate four tickets for us to give away at the upcoming Cast Party at the library.

Floral donation with library book display

We wanted to expand our partnership reach with other businesses in the community, namely restaurants in the downtown area who would want to capitalize on the foot traffic during the play weekend. We sent letters to the restaurants, informing them of the play weekend information, as well as asking them for a food donation for our Cast Party prior to the play. The library would also advertise their promotions at the Cast Party, as well as on social media. We even asked the local florist for a donation of a floral display for our Cast Party.

(l.-r.) customer service specialist Tracy Aerts, 'Tin Man' Sam Engel, children’s librarian Amanda O’Neal holding Toto (Ladybug), 'Dorothy' Abby Litjens, 'Scarecrow' Luke Flunker, library director Holly Selwitschka, and marketing specialist Kelly Nelson

Finally, the day of the Cast Party arrived and we welcomed a large crowd of children and adults, all who were excited for a sneak peek of the play, eager to purchase tickets and T-shirts from the production. Director Jim Hart spoke to the crowd about how the play came to be, and then introduced the actors. They entertained patrons by acting out one of the scenes from the play and signed autographs for the kids afterwards. Everyone enjoyed the delicious food donated by area restaurants. The Cast Party program included all of the community support that we had received throughout the process, in an effort to help promote the local businesses. As a result of their generous donations, and using supplies that we already had (paper, face paint, cups, plates, etc..), we were able to host this Cast Party at a cost of zero dollars!