By Pat Jenkins
The Dispatch
For the folks running the Pierce County Library System, summer is synonymous with reading and learning.
The libraries' annual Summer Reading program is underway with the goal of Pierce County residents of all ages improving their reading skills while earning prizes and having fun this summer.
The program, billed as the largest reading event in the south Puget Sound region, started June 24 with a two-hour "read-a-thon" at all 18 library branches, including the locations in Eatonville, Graham, Parkland-Spanaway and South Hill. By the time the program wraps up in September, it probably will involve tens of thousands of children and adults.
Library officials say the campaign helps students continue their learning and avoid the "summer slide" while they're out of school. Adults, meanwhile, are given opportunities for community engagement.
For young children, the more reading they do, the more rewards, such as free pizza and free admission to Northwest Trek and Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Educational activities include taking flight with parachutes,
Teenagers can combine reading with online gaming and videos. They can also compete for badges and prizes (including gift cards) by volunteering at an animal shelter and writing a post about it, reading a dancer’s biography and creating a music video, or going for a hike and posting what they saw.
For all children, the summer program can help their school skills from rusting before classes start again in the fall, said Georgia Lomax, executive director of the libraries.
“Keeping students reading during the summer is critical to keeping them on the path to school success and graduation,” Lomax said. “Studies show that children need opportunities to continue thinking and learning to avoid the summer learning slide.”
Knowledge and reading is also good for adults. Their Summer Reading experiences can include interacting with local authors and learning how to save and care for homeless cats, power homes with solar energy, and grow edible yards. Adults' program rewards include gift cards.
The program isn't forgetting adults who live in care facilities or are homebound. Same with kids who are spending the summer child care or live in low-income neighborhoods. Lomax said the libraries will go to them with books, movies and audiobooks, as well as ways to earn prizes.
Sponsors of Summer Reading are CHI Franciscan Health, Gordon Thomas Honeywell, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, and Wells Fargo.
Wrapped up with the program are two ways to fight hunger in communities and one way library borrowers who are bad about returning items on time can help themselves:
• Library branches will accept donations of non-perishable food for the Emergency Food Network, which helps supply food banks countywide.
• Through Sept. 3, children can have free lunches at the Parkland-Spanaway branch at 13718 Pacific Ave S. on any weekday. The lunches are sponsored by the Bethel and Franklin Pierce school districts and the office of the state superintendent of public instruction.
• And people with fines for overdue books or other library materials can have them reduced by $5 for the first 10 hours of reading that's recorded in the program.
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