Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Reporter's notebook: Olympics at the library

As skiers and snowboarders raced down mountains in South Korea at the Winter Olympics on Saturday, children at Clovis-Carver Public Library took part in a competition of their own.

Clovis' first Library Olympics included marshmallow stacking, a snowball slalom where kids blew through a straw to navigate a ball through several gates and a ski jumper straw rocket event where the participants used a straw to launch a skier made of paper as far as possible.

Children's librarian Rachel Meeks said she used various library blogs and the photo sharing website Pinterest to come up with the ideas for the games, which all use common household items like the challenges popularized on the game show "Minute to Win It."

"I've been trying to do something once a month for the older kids so it's not just story time — something for them to come and do on a Saturday, and with the Olympics it was perfect," Meeks said.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Jamie Cushman