Children’s and YA Summer Reading Program Reports Record-Breaking Success and Amazing Accomplishments
Riddle: What has 73,800 pages, 295 kids, 78 Teens, two narwhals, and a set of Apple AirPods?
Answer: The Community Library’s Youth Summer Reading 2022! And that just scratches the surface in a year that saw the first in-person celebration in two years, new prizes, better prizes, more prizes, and the greatest number of teen participation ever.
“Oceans of Possibilities” surrounded kids and teens in the Library’s 2022 Summer Reading Program. Participants are asked to register, read, and report their reading. Besides being oceans of fun, the program helped enrich time and learning over the summer months.
…everyone who picks up a story and turns the pages with wonder and curiosity wins big.
Add to that, participants had chance to win awesome prizes for their reading efforts. We had the following big prizes, but in our book, everyone who picks up a story and turns the pages with wonder and curiosity wins big.
Kids’ Grand Prizes
- Straws & Connectors Building Sets + Dog Man Boxed Set 1-6 (2 available)
- Aquarium Lego Sets (2 available)
- Melissa & Doug Giant Stuffed Narwhals (2 available)
- Toy Store Gift Cards: Grand Prize: $100, $50 second prize
Teens Grand Prizes
- Apple AirPods
- $100 Cash
- $20 Cash (5)
Wanna know who won what? See our list of winners here. And … No one walked away empty-handed:
Everyone who fully participated received a $10 voucher to Chapter One Bookstore in Ketchum or Iconoclast Books & Gifts in Hailey.
And if you came to the Awards Party, you received a fun and playful door prize, as well as the comradery of your peers.
DeAnn Campbell, Children’s and Young Adult Library Director, heard some heartwarming feedback on the prizes:
“The winner from Carey came to Bloom and told me he had won a whole set of Dog Man books that he could keep forever,” said DeAnn.
“Also, we were told by the mother of the girl who won the $100 gift card to the Toy Store (Clara Brown, who will be going into 1st grade this year) that Clara worked super, super hard on her reading this summer. That she had a tutor and that she read and read and worked so hard on her reading.”
“…coming out of the pandemic, this year’s summer reading program felt important. The kids were reconnecting with books and reading and their library. There was more in-person human connection.”
DeAnn Campbell, Children’s and Young Adult Library Director
We had participants and prize winners from all over the county including Hailey, Bellevue, Sun Valley/Ketchum, Carey, and even Fairfield. This represents a diverse mix of kids who come to the Library building and those who participate through our Bloom Truck bookmobile.
Here is the breakdown for the cities where we had participation:
DeAnn sent out special thanks to Candida and Helen and all the summer interns: Josie Gilman, Ally Orihuela, Zariah Johnston, Zach Quesnel, Gretel Huss, and Noemi Hurtado Chavolla who worked hard to promote the Summer Reading Program with the BLOOM program as well as manage the circulation duties there. It can be a big job to juggle that much especially in early summer.
The librarians in the building: Lee, Andrea, and Judy who manage it inside. Lee and Judy did fantastic displays. All help with vouchers, sign-ups, and reminding people and kids to keep participating in the summer. On-line sign-ups and record keeping have made this easier, but there is so much still that Lee, Andrea, Judy, Helen and Candida do always to keep it running. Judy, especially keeps the back-end rolling with the maintenance of the registrations and logs. This record keeping is A LOT. Judy was also master of ceremonies extraordinaire for the summer reading party.
DeAnn offered the biggest THANK YOU to our GRAND FRIENDS, Elise and Bobo for underwriting the vouchers and the summer reading prizes, saying, “Your support of literacy for the youth in the valley is quiet but so impactful. The program would not exist in the form it does without the both of you.”
DeAnn added, “I will say personally, that coming out of the pandemic, this year’s summer reading program felt important. The kids were reconnecting with books and reading and their library. There was more in-person human connection. There was excitement about prizes, but also reading, books, community, and each other. It brought hope. Well, it did to me.”
