Every four years we are gifted an extra day of the year and the Minot Public Library is making the most of this Leap Year with an assortment of programs leading up to, and into, March.

Saturday, Feb. 29 the Library will be hosting a Repair Fair from 10 a.m. to noon as a part of Zero Waste Week. People are invited to bring broken items, jewelry and small appliance the size of a bread box or smaller to have some local “repair wizards” take a crack at getting the items back to working order. According to Tim Baumann with the group Environmentally Minded People of Minot, the goal of Zero Waste Week is to give people of the community the opportunity to “join other members of our community as we work to raise awareness and become better about reducing and reusing.” Items that contain oil, gasoline or other chemicals are not able to be worked on at the Repair Fair. All attendees will also receive a reusable shopping bag.

Following the Repair Fair, MPL invites women to take a leap into leadership roles with Women Lead… Women Run at 1 p.m. With the upcoming election and only one woman on City Council, one on the County Commission and a small percentage of women in the state Legislature, the goal of this event is to encourage more women to take on leadership roles within Minot and the state. The event held on Leap Day will primarily be informational as organizers share which elected positions are available and information about how to run. In addition, organizers will discuss other ways to take part in local government and future meetings will be held to help assist those who’ve decided to take the leap into getting more involved.

The Minot Public Library leaps into March not only with events on the 29th, but with the annual Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration and Arts in the Library on March 1. For more than 20 consecutive years, the Minot Public Library and Minot Education Association has hosted a variety of Dr. Seuss activities including crafts, games and reading aimed at youth through third grade to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

The fun begins on Sunday, March 1 at 1 p.m. and continues until 3:30 p.m. Thanks to the Friends of the Minot Public Library, the first 200 children to attend the Dr. Seuss Day will receive a free Dr. Seuss book to keep!

Finally, the Library wraps up Leap Day weekend with a free after-hours concert featuring Watford City’s Jessie Veeder and her mix of Americana, country and folk music. Sunday’s concert is at 6 p.m. and is a part of the “Arts in the Library” series offered by the Minot Public Library and Minot Area Council of the Arts. MACA Executive Director Justin Anderson said he wanted to build on the success of “Arts in the Parks” by offering free concerts indoors during the colder months. “We recognized an opportunity to continue providing the community with free concerts while showing off what the Minot Public Library has to offer,” Anderson said. In addition to Veeder, March’s visual artist is Ben Wilson who will be showing off his pottery. Water and popcorn will be available to purchase at the event.

As with all Library events, each of these programs is completely free and open to the public. “It’s important to offer free programs for people of all ages,” said Children’s Librarian Randi Monley. “Not everyone is able to afford to pay for classes or admission fees to events and we don’t want anyone to miss out on opportunities to enrich their lives, so we make sure to do what we can.” Monley also added that the Library regularly hosts free weekly story times for children, events for teens and programs for adults. All events are listed on the Library’s website at www.minotlibrary.org as well as on their Facebook page. For more information on any of these events contact the Library at 852-1045.