 The Fox Festival is a town-wide celebration of Arlington's Fox Library, our wild neighbors, creativity, and our community. This year, since we can't have a parade, we are inviting everyone to enjoy The Epic Adventures of Fox and Owl, which will be a town-wide virtual puppet show comprised of one-minute videos made by the community. Isn't it frustrating to see a squirrel stealing from your bird feeder or a rabbit nibbling away at your garden? Not all neighbors are the most pleasant to live by, especially these wild ones. However, everything is complex. Squirrels and bunnies are actually pretty helpful neighbors. There's a good chance that many of the trees in your backyard were actually planted by squirrels who buried their nuts. Bunnies are also beneficial because they eat many of the weeds that grow in our yards. This means that more flowers can grow that birds and pollinators love. So, the next time you see a rabbit or squirrel, maybe don't think of them as just mischief makers. These neighbors have learned to live with us, and we can certainly learn to live with them. There are eight species of owls that live in Massachusetts, some of which live in our very own town. You can occasionally see owls hunting during night because they are not eternal. While they sleep during the day in pine trees and hollow knots in trees. Owls are amazing creatures, but there are a few problems for them. When they live in a town like poisoned rats and mice, they eat mice and rats. They are one of their owl's favorite foods, so when they eat poison rats and mice, they get sick. They have amazing hair, a very important ability for them since they hunt at night. So they can pick up every little sound which is very important when they hunt. Ways you can help the owls and the environment is by helping to pick up litter that is around Arlington. This will help everyone, all the animals living in Arlington and the environment as well. The Fox Festival is a celebration of all urban wildlife, especially foxes. Foxes are extraordinary creatures that you can see right here in Arlington and around the world. Everyone knows to treat others the way you want to be treated, so no matter what you think about foxes, just know they do so much for the environment and deserve to be respected. They help to control populations of certain animals such as rodents and rabbits. They also help to disperse seeds by eating fruit. We are so lucky to have the right type of environment to support these wonderful creatures. I always liked it when the red-tailed fox flew over Robbins Farm Park. Have you ever seen one that gives powerful birds like to eat mice and other nasty pests that you might not want around in your house, eating your food and living in your clothes? They help keep a balance in the ecosystem. Without red-tailed fox, can you imagine how things would fall out of balance? Unfortunately, red-tailed hawks are a danger. They depend heavily on their habitat, and without their habitat, they can't survive. We have wonderful amount of natural habitats here in Arlington, like Monotomy Rocks Park. But if we aren't careful, these wonderful birds we know will fade away. We must protect the red-tailed hawks. At this Fox Festival, think about the red-tailed hawks in celebration of urban wildlife and how you can protect them. These beautiful animals might be in danger if their wildlife fades away or is defiled. Don't let trash build up in these places. Help out in your neighborhood to keep these ecosystems clean for the red-tailed hawks. Make sure that these precious animals can continue to thrive. There are many ways to create a Fox and Owl adventure. You can take them around your house. You can take them into your own cartoon. You can even take them outside. You can use puppets and household materials. Or you can create a mini theater for them. Or you can use stop motion and draw out the adventure. Print out the character page for Fox and Owl so you can color and cut out the characters. If you do not have a printer, you can pick up the character page at the Fox Library Alcove outside the library front entrance or outside the front entrance of the DPW at 51 Grove Street. Now, attach your Fox and Owl to a pencil, stick, or chopsticks so that they become puppets. You may want to include some of their talents, favorite places, and snacks or some of their biggest worries in your story. You can find ideas for these on the puppet template. I'm going to be showing you a simple way to create a mini puppet theater for your Fox and Owl adventure. First, you want to get any kind of box. I'm using a shoe box, but you can use any box you have. And you'll want to grab some scissors too. Next, you want to cut off any tabs or flaps on your box. It might be one, it might be four. Make sure your box looks like this with all the flaps cut off. Now you want to flip your box over to one side like this. This will be the bottom of your box. Cut a slit in the bottom of your box. This is where you will stick your puppets. Now, turn your box back over so it looks like this and begin designing. You can use any material to create a fun environment for your Fox and Owl adventure. I'm making an underwater background. Here comes Fox and Owl. They are ready for their adventure. Here's how I made my Owl and Fox adventure. First, I planned out what I wanted to happen. These adventures should be less than a minute, so keep in mind your story length. Next, I drew out my adventure on a sheet of paper. In the end, my paper looked like this. Then I filmed my adventure using Stop Motion. Stop Motion Animation is an app that you can use to make animations like this one. Here's an example of something simple you can do to test. This is a very small bouncing ball animation that I drew. It actually looks like this. Stop Motion Animation can be confusing. Don't worry if you don't get it at first. Just keep practicing. Lastly, I added a voiceover. It's what you're hearing now. Don't forget that these are not your only choices. Please send your video submissions to this email. Fox and Owl Arlington at gmail.com. Thanks for watching! To submit your animation, go to www.artsarlington.org slash Fox and Owl by July 15th.