This year’s Summer Reading Passport program, now in its fourth year, has been another incredible success. It encourages kids to read more over the summer and celebrates the culture of literacy that our region fosters through the sponsors that make it all possible. Using their Passport, kids have been reading their way to raffle tickets for a chance to win grand prizes like bikes, gift cards, backpacks, “Librarian for the Day,” and more!

“This has been our most successful year to date” says Jen Betts, children’s librarian “We expanded the passports this year offering different versions for each age group, and one for short-term visitors to the region. That has been very popular and resulted in more signups than ever.” This year, when kids hit a milestone of 30 hours, they get a hand printed T-shirt that they get the chance to tie-dye themselves. “We have had more children than ever completing this challenge earlier in the program,” Jen said. “We take that as a positive sign that the program is working as intended and the added incentives are keeping children reading longer.”

As this year’s program comes to a close, we invite all Summer Reading participants and families to join us for a celebration on Friday, Aug. 18 from 1-3 p.m., for ice cream treats, games on the lawn, and our end of the Summer Reading Program Raffle! It is sure to be an exciting event and a culmination to what has been an excellent Summer (despite the weather)! We look forward to seeing you there.