AMENIA— On Friday, July 10, Bee Bee the Clown visited the Amenia Free Library to teach and entertain young children.
Bee Bee the Clown was the first event of Amenia Free Library’s six-week summer program, which hopes to bring children to the library encourage them to read.
“The purpose of the program is to encourage the parents to come with their kids and read our books,” said Library Director Miriam Devine. “That way, kids go to school in the fall and don’t frown upon reading.”
Bee Bee, also known as Jackie Reynolds, has two children’s books of her own: “Bee Bee’s Circus at the Counting Fair” and “Bee Bee’s Circus Number Fun Activity Book.”
A happy clown, she performed balloon and magic tricks using an assortment of puppets to engage the children. Bee Bee also had volunteers participate in the show. She taught colors by holding up drawings of different animals and then pulled out her bird puppet to sing the alphabet with the children.
Bee Bee’s show included lessons and behaviors for the children to follow. Every time she popped a balloon, Bee Bee made sure to remind them to always pick up their trash and put it in the garbage.
Bee Bee also used a variety of colors to symbolize different jobs, which she assigned to volunteers by handing out different colored ribbons. Then she pulled out a multi-colored ribbon from a hat, demonstrating that no job is more important than the other. She stressed that everyone has certain abilities that makes them special.
Bee Bee said she became a self-taught clown because of her children. Before becoming a clown, she was an engineer, but then one day she realized she didn’t want to miss out on her children’s wonder years. She has now been a clown for 23 years.
“I’m an engineer by education, but when my children were young, my perception was that if my husband was also an engineer, I would never see them,” said Bee Bee. “So I became a self-taught clown. This brings the opportunity to bring happiness to both the little kids and the grown ups.”
Bee Bee said she understands that not all clown shows are entertaining for adults. That’s why she includes references for adults’ enjoyment.
“It works wonderfully with my skill set,” said Bee Bee. “It brings me a lot of happiness to be able to do this.”
At the end of the show, Bee Bee gave out word searches and magic dollars to teach her magic tricks the little ones. For the adults, she had free spatulas in red and blue.
The rewards capped off a performance that pleased the crowd. Bee Bee knows her audience well; she’s been performing at the Amenia Free library for 17 years.
“She’s always very good,” said parent Jennifer Tillotson, who is also a teacher at Dover High School. “She’s entertaining and fun for the kids.”
The Amenia Free Library will be hosting “Howl at the Moon with a Hero Tune” on Friday, July 17. Tom Sieling will be there to sing humorous songs to engage the whole family.
