'Green' Grand Finale Sends Library Kids Out of Summer

Dedham Public Library held a Grand Finale Family Concert Friday as a musical farewell of sorts to a summer of clear skies and care-free festivities, a final send-off to prepare for the seasons studded with stress and manic obligations.

The announcement of environmentally friendly, recycling-themed "Go Green at Your Library" art contest winners took place at the very end, which consisted of categories up to seventh grade.

Most of the winners didn't show up to claim a prize – though each one who did took home fittingly green-colored prize packages, square shapes indicating an assortment of books. The kids who participated were the ones who had no trouble laughing and voicing themselves out loud, even while in the presence of their parents and the self-abating grown-up before them holding the guitar.

While childhood tends to conclude with a relative omission of a certain amount of imagination, not everyone is prone to such shame and humiliation sensitivity. Case in point: John Porcino, musician, multi-format entertainer complete with interactive stories, props and purposefully interrupted sing-a-longs.

Like a child unexposed to hatred or xenophobia, Porcino said he knows only of the inherent goodness of humanity and strives solely to make human connections (in this case, with children).

"I grew up loving different cultures and people, the differences and similarities we share as human beings," he said. "I had the blessing of having different foreign exchange students live with us from all over the world. It was how I developed a taste for how sweet different people could be from all the different continents.

"I gained an early sense of community, and that's what my work is all about."

Porcino, who performed at various parks, fairs and festivals in New England throughout the summer, was the event's only act, and with that responsibility he carried a whole trunk of gimmicks and tricks. (Literally, he had a suitcase filled with props he put to good use, such as a shape-shifting napkin/mouse and a conch shell for the purposes of playing a simplistic rendition of "Mary Had a Little Lamb.")

Not only that, the kids seemed impressed by his collection of stringed instruments even before he proceeded to play each one, including a guitar, violin, ukulele and a South American instrument called a charango.

Porcino laid out his arsenal on a blanket, which he referenced between rudimentary, yet attention-demanding tales and continuous audience interplay. When the time came for him to unveil his so-called "baby guitar," virtually every kid previously seated on the blanket-and-family-covered lawn jumped at the chance to demonstrate their ability to identify the instrument as a ukulele.

Imaginations prevailed as artists found the means to allocate even the most seemingly useless of items. Sculptures and pictures were made almost entirely of second-hand items, like soda cans, straws and bottle caps.

Caroline Dooman, who's worked as a children's librarian at Dedham Public Library for two years, couldn't get over one of the contest winners, a particular individual named Andrew who took the recycling theme to a whole new level.

"He had made a monster piñata for one contest, then painted and reused it for a second contest, turning it into a globe with all the countries. The funny thing was how it still had the monster's nose left over. So there was just a nose sitting in the middle of the ocean," she said.

It goes to show that conscious efforts are reaching receptive minds, but apparently only up to a certain age. Dooman said she noticed the kids in the audience attending were mostly under 12.

Joanne Scaramuzzo, a mother of one of those kids, embraced the proliferation of library programs that kept her kids physically and mentally active, not to mention outside the house for a good reason with school being out of session.

"The library has great programs all summer long, like the teddy bear picnics, writing day, Lego projects and 'Go Green' crafts," Scaramuzzo said.

 Another mother, Anne Jordan, said her daughter Jill, a third grader, was excited for school to start, but while school may be a source of daily wonder for a child, it can also be a source of ritualistic headaches for a mother.

"It's more stressful because everything is so scheduled. You have to make sure [the kids] get up and out on time," Jordan said.

For now, the biggest concern for kids amounts to not much more than finishing a tiny cup of ice cream before it melts. 

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