By Kari Patron/Staff Writer

Murrel Library provides Missouri Valley College students with drinks, snacks, fidget toys, and painting to combat stress during midterms. The library had free coffee all week, fidget toys like homemade playdough and bubble wrap, and free popcorn on Tuesday and Thursday from 6-8. They also hosted a painting night the Thursday before midterm week.

Murrell Library Public Relations, Marketing, and Outreach Specialist, Margot Mirabal, is in charge of planning and hosting these events. Mirabal chooses which events to do based on student feedback.

“Paint night was a huge success in the fall, so students wanted it back for this semester so we did that,” said Mirabal.

For sophomore Benedetta Peracchi (Italy) painting night was the perfect time to relax before Midterms. 

“I don’t normally go to library events because of basketball, but we were free that day and saw the event and thought it would be fun,” said Peracchi.

Peracchi and her friends from the basketball team attended paint night and were featured on the library’s Instagram page.

Mirabal stays in touch with students that visit the library regularly to hear their feedback on the events and to bring in new ideas.

“We have quite a bit of students that come in pretty regularly to the library so they’re pretty comfortable telling us what they want to see,” said Mirabal. “During the events, we have a lot of students that come in to almost every event we have so they tell us if they liked it. Anything that we can improve on and stuff like that so we really take all their ideas and feelings into consideration.”

As a former student, Mirabal brings in ideas for events she wished they would have done when she was a student. In previous years, Murrel Library has mostly hosted different types of events related to specific majors including bringing in big speakers.

“We still do that, but also try to have just fun activities for events,” said Mirabal. “I try to keep stuff that we’ve done for years and also bring in my own ideas and things that I wish I would’ve done before.”

One of the activities that Mirabal has brought to Murrel Library is collaborating with the local animal shelter and bringing in puppies during midterm and finals week. 

“The puppies was something that students wanted so we try to do it as much as we can,” said Mirabal.”

The puppies event is a very popular event that brings in close to two hundred students and staff to the library. Unfortunately, they were not able to do it for this midterm week, but they hope to do it for finals week.