Archive: Around Town

BubblesLansing Community Library Center wrapped up its Summer Reading program with a performance by bubbleologist Jeff Boyer.  His show, "Clue into Bubbles," was part of the "Get a Clue" theme for this year's program.  The Saturday morning show attracted 105 kids and grownups.  After an introduction by the library's Susan Rosenkoetter, Boyer asked, "Are you kids ready for bubbles?"  A loud cheer showed that they were.


Boyer specializes in mixing science and fun in about a half dozen shows he performs.  Constantly traveling from his Glasco, NY base, he had just come from performing at a resort in the Poconos.  This week he performed three shows a day at the Delaware County Fair, including the bubble show and two others.  But he says the Lansing kids were the best audience he's ever had for the bubble show.  "I loved it," he says.  "This was the best audience for the bubble show.  They are invariably enthusiastic, but they were so well behaved and so sharp."


He started out with small bubbles, with kids jumping up to pop them as they came down.  Explaining about bubbles as he went along, he created more from loops of string, giant eyeglasses, cones, and a bugle.  At one point he juggled bubbles, wetting his hands with soap so he wouldn't pop them.  And at another he blew pyramids of bubbles into volunteers' hands.  More kids were brought onto the stage to keep bubbles floating as long as possible with battery powered fans.

If a bubble didn't form, or burst too soon, Boyer simply tried again.  "I do not give up," he says.  "With bubbles you have to be slow and easy and patient.  This show has been a lot of fun and different from my other shows."


But the grand finale would have been worth waiting for even if the rest of the show hadn't been so much fun.  Choosing Miya Kuramoto from the audience, he dressed her in a hard hat and goggles, then stood her on a stool in the middle of a small inflatable swimming pool.  Using a hula hoop for a bubble ring, he completely enveloped her in a giant bubble.  "It was different colors like a rainbow," Miya says, noting that she could see the other kids normally through the bubble.  "It was fun."

Boyer says she was the perfect volunteer.  "She was a doll," he says.

Lansing's program kicked off at the end of June with a performance by Moreland the Magician.  They signed up at that program, pledging to read at least six books over the course of the summer.  They noted the titles they read in a log, which they presented as they entered the bubble show.  The 46 kids that showed up have read 643 books since the summer program began.  But 127 kids signed up for the program, and the remaining ones have until school begins to turn in their reading logs at the library and collect their prizes.  That could more than double the number of books read.


Children who read their six books over the summer got a bag of treats, and all kids got a jar of bubble soap.  They also got a gift certificate for a free book of their choice at the library's August 18th book sale.  Rosenkoetter has nothing but praise for the people like Amy Jaffe who helped her run the program.  "The teachers are so organized," she says.  "I am so lucky to have Lisa (Peter), and Patty (Jennings), and Amy (Redmond) to help."

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