By Cathy Kimmel-Srock
Review Staff Writer
It’s an everyday item that serves an important and functional use, but last week it was instrumental in a whole lot of fun for participants at the Orion Township Public Library’s Toilet Paper Olympics.
According to youth librarian Linda Pannuto, it was a fun event that incorporated math.
Inspired by the Bedtime Math program, an app that gives kids a math problem to do at bedtime instead of a story, the Toilet Paper Olympics featured competitions in long jump and toilet paper shot put, where competitors used measurements of toilet paper squares and multiplication to figure out their lengths. Volunteers from the library helped the competitors, aged kindergarten through fifth grade, with marking their spots and counting their squares.

“Our volunteers are all awesome,” Pannuto said. “We couldn’t do all these programs without our volunteers.”
Competitors at the event also worked together for some timed events, including wrapping team members up with toilet paper like a mummy and a relay race to unwrap a toilet paper roll as quickly as possible.
The Orion Township Public Library is located at 825 Joslyn Road. For more information about various events and programming at the library, visit oriontownship.org or call (248) 693-3000.