This year the Teen Library Council (TLC), which consists of high school students who provide input for the young adult department at the Carmel Clay Public Library, will host a team-bonding event on April 21 for all of its members called the Fandom Olympics. The event will focus on bonding between all members of the group through different activities, which include trivia and a scavenger hunt. In previous years, TLC hosted Pop Fest, which focused on objects and ideas related to the word “pop,” such as pop music and popcorn.

TLC adviser Jamie Beckman said, “(Pop Fest) was really popular with families because we did it on a Saturday afternoon, but the Teen Library Council wanted to try something new and do something just for Teen Library Council.”

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Emma Nitsos, TLC member and junior, measures out a section. for the rings TLC members generally choose to come to one meeting per week.

Parker Jou, TLC President of monday meetings and junior, said the idea for the Fandom Olympics was mainly founded on the principle of bonding together the TLC members that come on different days, which is due to the time slot system the council uses. Around the time that they get accepted, members of the club decide on a weekday that they will come into the library every week. Because members consistently come on the same day, they only see the other people that signed up for their day. The system inadvertently causes a looser affiliation with members that come on other days.

Jou said, “The Fandom Olympics was an idea by Jamie Beckman. She really wanted to have this event for all of our Teen Library Council members because we never spend time as a group. This idea was conceived as an event in which all of these different members from the different nights can interact and get to know each other.”

Priya Una, TLC member and sophomore, agrees that a large bonding event is so important is because the council is so spread out.

Una said, “We have done a Harry Potter escape room and we have done different trivia events. (This event) is bigger, so more people can do it at the same time. This year there are a lot of new people (in TLC) and (the leaders wanted) to meet up or have a bonding exercise. We all read books, listen to music or watch TV, so Fandom Olympics is something that unites all of our interests.”

Although the event is currently limited to just TLC members, Jou and Beckman said that in the future they might entertain the idea of opening the event to the public.

Jou said, “There is nothing particular about this event that limits it only to Teen Library Council members other than we intended this time to be a bonding experience. Carmel has a relatively large population of young adults and a lot of them like reading. I don’t see why it wouldn’t become a popular event if we opened it to the public.”

Beckman, on the other hand, chooses to to look at the event this year a test to see if it would be worthwhile to open it to the public. She said, “I hadn’t really thought of (opening the event up). It really depends on what the leaders want to do next year. We want to see how it will go this year and see if it is something that we could expand to the larger community.”