Summer library program keeps kids reading
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RONAN — Studies show that if kids don’t continue to read through the summer, teachers have to re-teach what their pupils forgot over the summer the following year, Ronan Library Director Michelle Fenger said.
She said summers can be a fun and exciting time for families and children alike, but there’s no reason reading shouldn’t be a part of that family fun.
But still, getting kids to take a break from non-stop summer activity and sit down with a good book can be challenging.
“Quite a few parents said if it weren’t for the summer reading program, they would’ve had a pretty hard time getting their kids to read through the summer time,” Fenger said.
And with the incentives, such as a bike, an Mp3 player, movie sets and books, the Ronan summer reading program was a big hit with 141 kids reading over 5,437 hours.
The program came to a celebratory close on Aug. 7 with a fun-filled picnic, complete with games and a raffle.
More than 75 people attended the event that was stocked with free hamburgers, hotdogs, salads, cakes and cookies.
“It’s encouraging that the local community supports their libraries,” Fenger said.
She noted that volunteers, local businesses, and groups such as the Friends of the Ronan City Library donated to the event.
“The friends of the library group set it up and cleaned it up,” Fenger explained. “I couldn’t do it without them.”
She thinks it’s evident that the community pulled together for the sake of Ronan’s kids, giving them inspiration to practice their reading skills and putting their literary needs first.
Kids eagerly competed for the prizes that were raffled off.
Fenger said that for so many hours of reading, kids received one raffle ticket for a grand prize drawing.
“I had one young lady tell me that if weren’t for the bike, she wouldn’t have read nearly as much,” Fenger said.
Besides parents and an opportunity to win prizes, another incentive for the younger children was story time with Teresa Larivee.
Larivee has story time once a week in Pablo and Ronan for an hour.
Each story time consists of a few books and an art project.
“She’s just really good at keeping the kids’ attention,” Fenger said.
