Calm in the Storm

It seems that there is a short calm in the storm as we pass the halfway mark for the Summer Reading Program. The flurry of activity at the beginning as everyone rushes to register, children, teens and adults, has subsided.

The children's program, Home Run Readers, exceeded last years enrollment in the middle of the third week. We have an estimated 800-900 enrolled, the highest in seven years. Sponsors and donors have been very generous and we have plenty of incentives to encourage reading through the summer.

Both the Teen and children's programs are partnered with the Angels baseball team and the theme has been very popular. The Angels have been very generous, provide great incentives, beach mats, bobble heads, batting helmets, salsa dishes, clocks, backpacks in the shape of a catcher's chest pad, growth charts, notebooks and more. the grand prize is tickets for four to a special Home Run Readers game. One lucky winner will get to say. "Play Ball" to open the game.

Special programs have also had full attendance. We have had to turn a few kids away each week. Our community room has an occupancy of 116, so we restrict admittance to children ages 4-12. All the programs have been great and I can only praise the excellent job of our children's librarian and her volunteers.

The Teen program has also exceeded expectations. We have doubled last years enrollment with hope of reaching 100 enrolled by the close of the program. The teens have been invaluable volunteers as well. It seems that we have older, more responsible teen volunteers this year. This has helped make this year Summer Reading Program run smoothly and more efficiently.

The adult program, our third year, has tried a new approach. It's entitled Scrabble Mania and adults enrolling in the program can read to earn chances in the drawing, register for to play Scrabble for chances for the drawing or do both. This has been our most successful adult program yet. Attendance at the Scrabble games started out low, but everyone was encouraged to bring a friend and it has grown steadily with each program. The Friends of the Library purchased prizes, a Scrabble mug, Scrabble book bag, Scrabble cap, Scrabble books and the grand prize a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble. Kudos to our adult librarian and his very unique theme this year.