DDR Free Play and Tournament 2015

Last Wednesday we had 5 teens participate in our Dance Dance Revolution tournament! We played Dance Dance Revolution II on the Wii in four-player mode for some warmup, then went down to 2-players for the actual tournament. In the end, Sarah got the first place prize, a $10 Gamestop gift card. Hurit came in second and Mary came in third, both winning candy prizes. We also had some music games to play just for fun, such as the strange Donkey Konga games on Gamecube, played with bongo controllers, and Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, which is exactly what it sounds like, DDR played with remixes of Mario music! There were also several games of Connect 4 played during downtime! Thanks to everyone that came out to play some DDR!

Random-A-Thon 2014!!

Last Saturday we had our annual Random-A-Thon fundraiser! 11 teens showed up for the event, which required a minimum donation of $10 to enter. Almost everyone stayed for the entire program, which ran from 10 to 3! We started things off with some Dance Dance Revolution by hooking up the Xbox 1 (like, an original Xbox, not the Xbox One!) to a projector. The tables were set up with duct tape crafts, with a few iPads set to YouTube pages of duct tape instructions to follow along with. Although it didn't take long for some of the iPads to be hijacked for playing some Spaceteam on them, which is a riot to watch four people play at the same time.

After DDR we used the projector for a trivia game where everyone had to test their knowledge on a variety of topics such as "name that cheese", "2013", "celebrity yearbook photos" and "candy". Afterwards we broke for lunch where you could make your own peanut butter and jelly (or marshmallow fluff) sandwiches or get a Cup Noodles. During lunch there was Rock Band playing in the other room, then we brought out the Connect 4 for a short tournament where Alex was undefeated. We ended things with some Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart.

I'm still waiting for some people to hand in their fundraising packets, so I'll update again when there's a final tally, but right now I think we're at around $350! The person who raises the most will get a prize as a way of saying thank you. Overall it was a great way to spend a Saturday at the library!

trivia time!

starting the day with DDR

Chess on one side of the table, Spaceteam on the other

Fall DDR Day

Yesterday, 15 teens came after school to play Dance Dance Revolution.  We had free play for a while, then 14 people entered a tournament.  Everyone played cards and games between dancing, and, of course, there were snacks.  There were four really good players in the tournament, but Jennifer surpassed them all to win!  She earned two five-dollar gift cards, one to Burger King and one to Five Below.  (I usually do a $10 to one store, but I had to use up some leftover gift cards from summer reading.)  We'll do some more DDR over the winter, so look for it on the schedule!

Back-to-School DDR

Yesterday, 19 teens showed up for our first Dance Dance Revolution day of the school year!  I was really happy to see so many people, especially because I published the fall schedule a lot later than usual this time.   Ten people entered our tournament, and the final came down to Jamie vs. Ross.  It was VERY close, but Jamie edged out Ross and won a $10 gift card to GameStop.  Thanks to everyone who showed up!

Don't forget to pick up a copy of the fall schedule!  The final version is available now!!

Dancing Their Fines Away

Only seven teens dropped in today for Dance Away Your Fines, but the good thing was that they all got a lot of time on Dance Dance Revolution. I played two dancers at a time for the entire two hours and it tired me out! As everyone arrived, they filled out a card and got the desk staff to record their fines. Then they came up to play DDR. Every time someone beat me (or came close), I punched a hole in their card showing that $1 had been removed from the fine.

Altogether, the teens paid off $35 in library fines! I wish more people had taken advantage of this, but it was great for the teens who were there. Jared paid off the most, taking care of a $12 debt with some sweat equity! Also, thanks to Kaitlyn and Nitha for teaching Nehimya how to play DDR and helping him do well enough to pay down his fines.

We'll do another fun fine reduction day sometime in the future, so let me know if you have any great ideas.

DDR

Last Wednesday, 29 teens showed up to play Dance Dance Revolution. I finally managed to get a copy of DDR Ultramix 3 for our Xbox, so it was nice to have some new music! David brought a second Xbox and game, so we hooked that up to the TV and let people play it with hand controllers. We also put out the board games and cards for people to play during the event. As the afternoon progressed, we dedicated two of the dance pads to our tournament. Twenty-three people entered, and the final came down to Sarah E., Judy, and Jamie. They all got candy, but Jamie was the ultimate winner of a $10 gift card to GameStop. I didn't get to dance at all, so you know we have to do this again soon! Look for it on the fall schedule.

And the Gold Goes to...

...David for his performance in yesterday's Dance Dance Revolution Tournament! The silver medal went to Genni, while Imade and Katie tied for bronze. A total of 18 teens competed yesterday for fame, fortune, and love of the game -- ok, so the fame only goes as far as this blog and the fortune is more like a Gamestop gift certificate, but really, we play for the love. Besides, who needs the Olympics when there's a dance-off at your local library? We had a great time with our three tournaments, though I got knocked out during the first round of each one! Maybe I should have stuck to Monopoly or cards, which our non-competing teens enjoyed on the side...

DDR

Yesterday afternoon, 15 teens came out for DDR at the library. Not everyone was brave enough to dance, but it seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves! We had a tournament, which Jamie won easily (again). Somebody has to stop him! We'll definitely have another DDR event before summer, so look for it on the schedule.