Cedar Grove Kids Go For Gold

Olympic gold medals were at stake Tuesday in Cedar Grove as the Cedar Grove Library presented a Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games event for children six and older.
Children celebrated the Games by playing different Olympic events on Nintendo Wii’s, accompanied by some of their favorite video game characters.
“I thought it would fit in perfectly with the Olympic games and generate some excitement for our Wii events,” said Youth Services Librarian Natalie Cheetham. “We purchased a Nintendo Wii at the beginning of the year for our circulating video game collection. We are trying to pull kids ages between 8 and 12 to our events.”
The video game, Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, features events such as hurdle races, long jump, javelin, synchronized swimming, gymnastics, soccer, beach volleyball, fencing and much more.
The children were excited about the chance to compete and show off their skills to their competition.
Olympian Valentina Carpinelli, 6, said, “I like watching gymnastics and swimming in the Olympics. My favorite game on the Wii is Mario Kart. I'm super good at it.”
Emmie Hynd, 8, said she enjoys watching the summer Olympics and loves playing soccer on her Nintendo Wii. She was looking forward to playing Wii soccer to show off her skills to the other children.
Rocco Quilici, 4, came to the library with his mother when he saw the other children playing Wii. Although he has a Nintendo Wii at home, he could not pass up playing the Olympic games with the other children. 
He chose his favorite character, Yoshi the green dinosaur, and led the character through sprints and hurdles to the finish line.
Caroline Rosiecki, 5, of Cedar Grove earned a medal when her character's winning routine on the parallel bars.