Trading post opens June 13

Washington County Library and the Science Museum of Minnesota are partnering to bring a Collectors’ Corner Neighborhood Trading Post to the R.H. Stafford Library in Woodbury. The program encourages kids of all ages to explore their natural surroundings and learn about the objects they discover.

Traders bring in natural objects or a journal entry, photograph, rubbings or drawings of an object and share their knowledge about it with volunteers.

Librarians help traders learn more about the object using field guides, geology and biology books and online library resources. The more the trader knows about the object the more points they earn. The object is added to the Collectors’ Corner collection on display in the library. Points are used to trade for other natural objects in the collection or banked to trade later.

Collectible objects include rocks, sand, shells, pine cones, fossils, seeds, insects, clean bones and skulls or shed snakeskins. Natural objects that are protected or endangered are not allowed.

The Collectors’ Corner Neighborhood Trading Post at the library will be open Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Wednesdays, 3 to 6 p.m.

At the Grand Opening on Saturday, June 13, at 10 a.m. children will learn how to trade, examine a skull and snakeskin, play a natural objects sorting game and receive free shells and rocks from the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Volunteers are also need to staff the trading post. Visit www.smm.org/volunteer, call (651) 221-9453 or email volunteer@smm.org for more information.

Tags: washington county, trading post, communities, woodbury, library, collectors, corner, stafford