Children's area at Dearborn Public Library gets upgrade

There's an enchanted forest in Dearborn. Yeah, for real. It's filled with dragons and dinosaurs and trolls and whales and birds and princes and anything you can imagine. It's all there, in this enchanted forest.

Anyone can visit it and join in the fun; all you need is a library card. See, this forest is located at Dearborn's Henry Ford Centennial Library.

"It started out as a park theme," says Maryanne Bartles, Library Director for Dearborn Public Libraries. "But I wanted to take it to the next step. I want the children to come back. I wanted it to be more magical."

Bartles is talking about the Centennial's new children's area, the Enchanted Forest.

"I had a little boy come up to me and say, 'this is the bestest place,'" she says.

The Dearborn Library Foundation, a 501(c)3, received a $200,000 grant to fund a project that the city didn't routinely take care off or that the city wouldn't really have time to fund.

The foundation chose the children's area at centennial. They used about $175,000 to remodeled the section.

They added an arch, new shelving, a tree house, a puppet theater, and new tables and chairs.

"We wanted to do something to make it special," Bartles says. "The area before just blended in, we wanted it to be more inviting for the children."

Nothing says "come on in" more to a kid than an enchanted forest.

"This renovation has been great," Bartles says. "This building has been around since the mid to late-60s, and we've had new carpeting and tables, but nothing like this. This goes beyond all that."

The next step, Bartles says, is to move on to the other three Dearborn Public Libraries and enhance - or would it be enchant - their children areas.

Source: Maryanne Bartles, Dearborn Public Library Director
Writer: Terry Parris, Jr.