When I walked in the reason was obvious – I had chanced upon the 10th Annual Worm Races in the Children’s’ section of the New Carlisle Community Library.
After standing for the Olympic theme song and honoring the flag for opening ceremonies, the owners and trainers of the 31 registered earthworms got to business.
Worms registered for the race were appropriately named. Most memorable were Rocket Booster, Mr. Worm, Squirmy, Slim, Turbo, Speed, Bubblegum Duchess, and Wally Worm among other names such as Bob and Cutie.
The racetracks were two plastic covered targets on the floor. The racing earthworm was held under a plastic cup and, after the cup was lifted, given a set time to see how far it could get from the middle.
Or as Children’s Librarian Maggie Bollar put it over the speaker system, “Two minutes to go as fast and as far as your worm’s brave heart can take it.”
Since some of worms were quite active, “Miss Maggie” had to caution spectators a bit.
“If you see a worm heading your way, back off and let him travel!”
Participants had to be careful to not harass the worms, but they could cheer or spritz the earthworm with water. Play- by-play commentary on the speaker system added to the excitement.
For many participants it was their first event, but two families were returning to race again.
Melissa Johnson was there with her two sets of twins, Ian and Alex Johnson, and Ainsley and Tavey Johnson, and her oldest daughter.
“We are back to win,” said the proud mother.
However, big sister Meridith Johnson, a former winner of the event, seemed to be content to retire as a champion and just advise this year.
The Johnson Racing Team had acquired their racing worms at a local bait shop only minutes before the event.
“I asked (the bait shop owners) are these fast ones?” said Mrs. Johnson. “Cause in ten minutes they will be racing and they (the bait shop workers) just looked at me.”
Craig Hamstra, a home schooling father, had a different approach to helping his kids acquire earthworms.
As he explained, Stephen, Emily and Elizabeth Hamstra had to be resourceful in their searching because worms were hard to find in hot dry weather. Eventually they found their racers under a pile of lawn grass.
“This also gives us a chance to study the biology of worms,” said Hamstra, who explained that he and his children had observed how the worms are segmented, and how the worms lived before bringing them in for the excitement of the race.
“This is the best library in the state in my opinion,” he said.
Evidently, events like the worm races are just one more way to make learning fun and there is a lot of learning going on at the New Carlisle Community Library.
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