The Community Founders stand before a photo of Richard Byrd, who they will commemorate on Aug. 8 and 10 with an Antarctic celebration. Carol Quinn
The Richard Byrd Library will beat the heat with its 55th Anniversary Celebration, August in Antarctica. The organizations that founded the library in 1958, such as the Friends of Richard Byrd Library, the Woman’s Club of Springfield, the Upper Pohick Community League, and the Springfield Art Guild are collaborating to run this event. The celebration will have two components.
Thursday, Aug. 8, the first of the celebratory events, will be geared toward adults. Delegate Vivian Watts will welcome adults to the ceremony after a reception with cake and punch. Then, author Guy Guthridge will give a lecture titled “Richard Byrd: Antarctic Explorer,” which will include a question and answer session. Participants will also be treated to an informative PowerPoint on the South Pole and will get to see the Antarctic flag, which will be flown in the library’s meeting room.
“The Woman’s Club was originally instrumental in starting the library, so we are definitely anxious to continue our help,” said Pat Milot of the Woman’s Club of Springfield.
The second part of the anniversary celebration will be held on Saturday, Aug. 10 and will be family-oriented. These foundations are coming together to transform the Richard Byrd Library into the South Pole.
Shirley Edwards of the Springfield Art Guild made snow by mixing water and artificial snow powder, and the celebration will include two large bins of it. Children will be able to play in the snow in the middle of August. Edwards’ husband, Ron, built wooden penguins with face cutouts that children can stand up to and get photographed in. One of the penguins looks like Richard Byrd’s mascot; the other two are a mother penguin with her child.
“Members of the Springfield Art Guild are looking forward to making little penguins of the kids who attend this event,” said Edwards.
Attendees will also be able to send postcards to the South Pole. The postcards will be delivered and sent back to the children’s families with the rare Antarctic postage stamp. The celebration will also include a penguin face-painting station, an activity where children sort through a basket of gloves and mittens to find a match, and a National Science Foundation computer game where children decide which creatures belong in the North Pole, South Pole or both.
The National Science Foundation also loaned the library a real Antarctic explorer suit, complete with boots, heavy-duty gloves, a thickly padded coat, hats and goggles. Children will be able to try the outfit on, to see how it feels to be a real explorer.
“We are sneaking education in,” said president of the Friends Group Christine Peterson.
These various activities will not be the only source of education. Kids will be able to try a sort of blubber glove, which is a plastic bag coated in Crisco and layered with another bag. The kids will then put their gloved hand in a tub of icy water. The glove’s purpose is to simulate how blubber insulates a penguin and keeps them warm underwater.
Participants will also be able to sign a flag with the Richard Byrd logo that will be sent to Antarctica and flown in front of a colony of penguins. The flying will be broadcast on a webcam, so people can log in and see the flag that they signed waving in the chilly South Pole air.
Not all the activities will occur inside the library. Outside, children will be able to balance papier mache eggs on their feet the way adult penguins do. Also, as children leave the festivities after a full day, they will be given a snow cone.
“In August, whether it’s hot or rainy, you want to leave Springfield and go to Richard Byrd, because Richard Byrd will be Antarctica,” said Peterson. “Everything will be cool.”