Celebrating 10 years with champion of early childhood Megan Johnstone

Wow, 10 years! A whole decade of stories, songs, laughter and learning. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been part of Ipswich Libraries’ First 5 Forever journey for so long, evolving through multiple roles before stepping into my current position as First 5 Forever Team Leader. Our small but mighty team of 3-part timers is always on the move, we never stay still. We are constantly updating, refreshing, and responding to the ever-changing needs of our community. 

Looking back, it’s amazing to see how much the program has changed and evolved. I’ve watched tiny tots, just starting their journey with us, grow into confident pre-teens. It’s a little mind-blowing and makes me feel slightly old! 

What I love most? Whether it’s through outreach, library sessions or community events, I am driven to test boundaries and see how to best engage our community and foster connections to the library. With resources from State Library of Queensland and inspiration from other libraries, we’re always on the lookout for best practices, new initiatives, and even rediscovering old gems that deepen engagement and reach new families where they are. Whether this means taking the program to the pools, parks, shopping centres, child health services, playgroups, hobby farms or rail museums. Our team is a big believer in not reinventing the wheel while also embracing trial and errors.  

To commemorate First 5 Forever turning 10, Ipswich Libraries has created a special logo stamp to feature on all our marketing and social media throughout 2025. We will be celebrating with ‘Ten Days of First 5 Forever’ — a showcase of 10 days of First 5 Forever programs held across library branches and the community.  

The celebration will commence on Monday 7 July 2025 with First 5 Forever Pop-Up Library Fun outside of the Ipswich Children’s Library as part of the school holiday activation of the Nicholas Street precinct. This event will feature the launch of a new First 5 Forever Tales and Trails location for Once I Munched a Mango with author Samantha Wheeler, and lots of fun learning activities by community partners.  

The 10-day program includes Story Time, Story Time with Story in a Box and Messy Play Time sessions at library branches, Story Time at Bunnings, and Pop-Up Library Fun programs at the Ipswich NAIDOC Family and Cultural Celebration and a local shopping centre. The culminating event will be a Pop-Up Library Fun program as part of the Ipswich Spark Festival on 20 July 2025, the anniversary date for the delivery of the first ever First 5 Forever program for Ipswich Libraries. 

To mark this special First 5 Forever milestone, our Maker space team has designed and printed over 1,000 roller play dough stampers as limited-edition giveaways to accompany our First 5 Forever toolkits...  and there will be cake!  

Ten years in, and the passion still burns bright. Here’s to another decade of literacy, connection and fun! Cheers to First 5 Forever, and cheers to the families who make this journey so rewarding!