STRYKER BRANCH
2025 was a year of positive change at the Stryker Branch Library, striving to meet the needs and requests of our patrons. We have added some new programs endeavoring to be a community center for our wonderful village.
A few of the new programs added in 2025 were: Diamond Art, Food and Friends, chair exercise classes, Monday morning craft classes, and Picasso Painter’ s Jr. Our adult programs proved to be well attended throughout the year. Some of the programs offered were the monthly book club,“ OverReaders Anonymous”, Stitching with Friends a monthly stitching group, and our very popular weekly Coffee on Mondays. Also, we offered a candle making class, Blind Date with a Book, a shattered glass picture class, wreath making and centerpiece classes, water color classes, bow making classes, Create a Floral Arrangement, and much more.
We are located next to the school and serve as the Stryker Local School library. All elementary classes, from th
preschool through 6 grade come to the library on a weekly visit. We read to each class, and the students also have the opportunity to check out books.
We offer a variety of weekly and also special programs for children. We have four weekly afterschool events and one morning preschool class each week. There is a very popular teen program, Picasso Painters offered monthly. Some of our children’ s“ specials” were Build a Winter Animal, Magician Jim Barron, Slime Wars, Nature’ s Nursery from Whitehouse Ohio, Jim Basketball Jones, Exotic Zoo, and Science Central from Toledo had an action packed presentation. We had a bounce house, cotton candy day, ride on furry animals, author / illustrator programs, a week long camp learning about Wild Ohio, messy art, Dog Man week, a class to teach children how to crochet, Lego clubs, writing letters to Santa with each letter being answered by Santa’ s elf, and decorating gingerbread houses.
A few of our family events included Meet the Easter Bunny, A Family Scavenger Hunt, Community Christmas Open House, and our Back to School Kickoff Cookout. We offer a monthly Stryker Area Homeschool Program that is a popular event. The WCPL van, Larry and Lily( the library mascots), and WCPL staff were in our Stryker Fall Fest parade, handing out candy and greeting many smiling faces along the parade route. In June we celebrated our beloved library assistant’ s retirement. Linda Woodall started working at the Stryker Branch in 2011. In 2026 the Stryker Branch will strive to continue to provide the best programs and service that we can for our community.