Summer Reading Program Attains 207 Hours of Reading

By Sharon Johnson

Librarian

August 13, 2004

The Kiowa County Public Library District’s 2004 Summer Reading Program, Discover New Trails @ Your Library, was held twice a week for three weeks again this year. Fifty-five youngsters, ages 3 and up, attended six programs that began on July 20, and ended on August 4. Special programs held this summer included: Birding Trails presented by Judy Bean with help from Calvin Ullman; the Santa Fe Trail presented by National Park Service Ranger Jennifer Gingrich; and the Lewis and Clark Trail presented by Rod Johnson. We finished with the Readers’ Theater presentation of A Tale of Johnny Appleseed under the direction of Jennifer Crow

The kids traveled west in teams by hours read across a large map made by Jennifer Crow. The storytimer team (ages 3 & 4) were read to 48 hours. The intermediate reader team read 64 hours and the Readers’ Theater team read 95 hours. The total number of hours read by all teams was 207.

Book prizes were awarded by drawing. Swimming passes were awarded for attendance. The Grand Prize Drawings were held after the Rearders’ Theater presentation on August 4, 2004. Kaylee Wilson and Molly Stozenberger won the $25 gift certificates to Barnes and Noble and Leisha Peck won the Rockies Baseball tickets. The Rockies Baseball tickets were donated again this year by American Select Insurance Management Corp. by way of Lori Hartman who is the daughter of Harvey and Sandi Kelley. Thanks to all of those responsible for the donation.

Staying with the traveling west/prairie theme, we made some craft items for which we needed supplies. Mel Haskell very graciously donated tin cans for our hammered tin lanterns and large two-hole buttons for our "buzz-saw" button toys. She also loaned us hammers. Honey Belle Dixon manned the circulation desk so that the library could remain open during summer reading program hours. Jennifer Negley and Lisa Miller helped out wherever needed. Jennifer Crow once again volunteered to lead the Readers’ Theater group. She did an excellent job and is to be commended for her selfless donation of time and energy to the kids and the library programs. Thank you Jennifer.

The public library has a good working relationship with the school libraries in the county so I thought you might be interested in a couple of quotes from the DA District Administration: the magazine for k-12 education leaders. "In Colorado, students were likely to earn higher reading scores if their school library collaborated with a local public library offering book presentations and summer reading programs." Remember, now that school is about to start, we have lots of Lexile and Reading Counts books to supplement those of the schools’ libraries. "Good libraries encourage students to read for pleasure. According to one study, voluntary reading is the best predictor of reading comprehension, vocabulary growth and spelling ability." The summer reading program is over until next year, but reading is a lifetime joy and pleasure.