Joy the Clown thrills children at library

June 24, 2019

Joy the Clown amused children and adults during the Children Summer Reading at the Hampton B. Allen Library on Friday.

From balloon animals to magic tricks, Joy the Clown kept attendees laughing throughout the event, fulfilling the goal of librarians.

“The goal was for the children to have fun and enjoy being at the library,” said Bethany Livingston, librarian.

“We wanted to get the kids excited about visiting the library,” said Destiny Dows. “It was more than expected because, in past programming, the number of participants has not always been as large as it was today.”

With roughly 30 children in the audience, Joy the Clown managed to entertain them all. She also invited several students to help her perform tricks.

She said that she has been a clown for 27 years, starting when her children jokingly told her she should be a clown.

Joy the Clown gave the children life lessons, including the importance of treating people how they would want to treated, obeying parents, and paying attention to their teachers.

“I think what they took from the event was that they can have fun, but also learn at the same time,” Livingston said. “It was even better than I expected.”

Joy the Clown also performed tricks with a live rabbit and bird. The children were overjoyed with the trick and the animals — and at one point asked her to let the rabbit run freely.

“If I put him down, we will never find him,” Joy the Clown said, referring to the baby rabbit.

“I knew they would laugh and have fun — and also enjoy seeing the animals,” Livingston said.

Even though the rabbit couldn’t run free, the children were able to pet him and the bird after the show. They spent several minutes with each animal, still excited.

“I hope the children come back for more fun at the library,” Livingston said.

Joy the Clown gave the children balloon animals after the show, and even took a few pictures.

“Not only does Joy the Clown offer fun for all ages, but she also offers a lot of little life lessons along the way,” Dows said. “I think that have so many kids having fun and learning at one time is the best result we could ask for.”