Find your ‘missing pieces’ at the library

The Center Moriches Free Public Library is now providing an additional unique offering this summer. “Missing Pieces” was created with the help of a teen volunteer and includes a drawer-turned-treasure trove of possible missing pieces to complete your game at home. Pieces included in the drawer can be anything from dice, cards, Monopoly, Battleship pegs and more.

“For years I’ve wanted to do this but never had the time. A teen volunteer made this a reality for me,” said library director Marcie Litjens, explaining that Delaney Mattiolo had volunteered her time and collected the pieces. Mattiolo lives in East Moriches and is a ninth grader at Westhampton Beach High School.

Mattiolo has been an avid library user since she was a preschooler and, according to Litjens, has always been one of the first to offer a hand when a project needs to be done. When she asked if there were any opportunities at the library, Litjens immediately thought of the missing pieces idea.

“Missing the dice or property cards from Monopoly? Can’t sink a battleship without the pegs? That’s no longer an issue! Just come down and get what you’re missing,” added Litjens.

“I was really excited to work on this project,” Mattiolo said, explaining that she started it after completing her Girl Scouts Silver Award with a collection of boxes for a hygiene drive at the library last year.

How did she get all the pieces? She said it was simply done by word of mouth, social media, and flyers. She created flyers and hung them at local supermarkets and made Instagram and Facebook post soliciting donations of missing board game pieces. Mattiolo also placed decorated collection boxes at the East Moriches schools and at the library.

“We had a lot of donations; my mom drove me to pick up from people and we needed a car to pick up from the school and library!” she said of the process.

After going through all the games, she said, she first tried to create full games. Then, all of the full games were re-donated to the library. But if the game could not be completed, then the pieces went to the missing pieces bin. The bin was then grouped together by games or pieces to make it easy for people to locate specific game pieces.

“Really, the entire project was so much fun!” she added. “I liked getting to put games together and creating an area so games don’t have to be thrown out and harm the environment. I also discovered a lot of older games that I had not heard of before. I hope people will try those out at the library, too!”

The best part, aside from being able to play your game again, according to Mattiolo and Litjens, is the missing pieces are being saved from ending up in the landfill.

“This new resource fits nicely into our new Sustainability Initiative and will help keep games that are not usable from ending up in the landfill,” said Litjens. “Anyone is welcome to browse the collection of pieces that are located in the lounge area by the puzzle swap table and take what they need to complete their game at home. It’s a great way to reduce, reuse, and recycle!”