Libraries are usually quiet places, but the Geneva Public Library was anything but silent on Friday night.
The library, in cooperation with the Geneva Park District, featured three hours’ worth of what officials called “an epic laser tag battle in the library.”
Brogan Greif, 14, of Geneva, was all in as far as playing laser tag at the library.
“I’ve not been to one of these events but I’ve played laser tag before,” Brogan said as he stood outside the library Friday night waiting to go inside. “I don’t have a strategy, it’s just run-and-gun.”
Beginning just after the library closed to the public at 6 p.m., four different age groups of young people enjoyed separate time slots to play laser tag using shelves, tables and whatever other cover was available in an attempt to achieve either a team or individual victory.
Kelly Wales, recreation supervisor for the Geneva Park District, spoke Friday before the start of the event and said the district “reached out to see if we could collaborate on a teen event” with the library.
“We love working with the community and doing different partnerships,” she said. “We do the registration, they have the space, and we combined efforts to pay for it.”
The event was coordinated by Teen Librarian Kylie Peters, who said the laser tag event is a popular one.
“We’ve done this before but it’s always a little bit different,” Peters said. “It’s filled up. We can only have 16 play at a time, because that’s all the equipment allowed for.”
Peters said the event continues to draw kids partly because it allows them more freedom in what is normally a controlled space.
“I think it’s because you get to run around in a place where you normally have to be somewhat quiet and not run around,” she said. “You have to be quiet but you need your library manners. It feels a little subversive.”
In terms of players and strategy, Peters said “sometimes it varies.”
“You’ll see friends sticking together, but it depends on the personality of the friend group,” she said. “Sometimes they want to take out their friends and other times, they’re more together. We hope this is a great memory for them, and they grow up and take this memory with them and think the library is a fun place.”
Brian Cannon, who works for Golden Gun Laser Tag out of Plainfield, supplied the laser devices and met with each group to explain use of them.
He said the first round “would be open where everybody just runs around” and that later rounds would include making up teams based on the color of their laser tag guns’ lights.
“It starts with organized chaos and having everybody pick their own gun. I don’t care what color it is,” Cannon explained. “After that I’ll organize by teams with the four colors and we rotate around.”
Jake Lor, 14, of Geneva, was among the players who said that while he gets a lot of books at the library, he has never come for laser tag.
“I’m not sure if I like the team idea or by yourself, but a bunch of my friends are here,” he said. “I just want to have some fun.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
