The Detroit Public Library is an invaluable resource for the entire region, providing books, educational programs, and community events, to all who enter its doors. Of the twenty-two Branch locations across the city, 826michigan is privileged to have offered programs at five of them—Campbell, Franklin, Redford, Skillman, and the Main. This month, as we celebrate the start of a new school year and prepare for the release of OMNIBUS VIII to kick off the fall, we would like to highlight our ever-deepening partnership with the Redford Branch of the Detroit Public Library.
The current site of the Redford Branch itself is located on the former grounds of Detroit Receiving Hospital, (super cool factoid), and offers a variety of programs including computer classes, nutrition support, a Toastmaster’s group, and 826michigan Drop-in Writing for Wee-Bots.
Each Detroit Public Library Branch is staffed with a fantastic team of librarians, and Emily Thomson of the Redford Branch is just as amazing as every librarian we’ve ever encountered. Following several years of well-attended and enthusiastically supported workshops at the Campbell Branch of DPL, and several summers worth of programming at the Skillman and Franklin branches, Emily has been 826michigan’s main point of contact and source of support to produce programs for a whole new group of students on the westside of the city.
No matter what we need—help spreading the word about our programs, ideas for what students 
need and want, the best books on robots and squirrels who mistake the moon for cheese—all we have to do is ask and the team at the Redford Branch is there to help.
Earlier this year, 826michigan hosted two eight-week sessions of Wee-Bots at the Redford Branch which yielded the hilarious volume, I Have Hidden a Treasure Somewhere I Cannot Remember. Can you imagine the adventure first-graders can take you on to find a treasure they can’t even remember? Hilarious is no overstatement in this case, friends.
In addition, the Redford Branch was delighted to partner with us to offer a spring Field Trip for students from the Detroit nonprofit Alternatives for Girls. Their chapbook, The Disappearing of the Purple Emoji: The Wonders of the Black Cave,takes readers on a roller coaster ride of all the feels, defeats, and victories, the unpredictable and still whimsical imaginations a group of teens can contain.
Our team is especially grateful for the many ways our partnership with the Redford Branch of the DPL continues to grow, and we can’t wait to see what the new year has in store. Drop-in Writing begins in mere weeks for Redford Branch Wee-Bots—running from 6-7pm on Mondays beginning September 26 and ending December 5. If you’ve got a student between the ages of six and eight, bring them by for the fun; it’s a great way to see first-hand all that the Detroit Public Library’s Redford Branch has to offer.
Thank you for your partnership, DPL Redford Branch! You’re our September 2016 Supporter of the Month!
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