Happy Trails: Summer reading program

Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA -- The Wasilla Public Library hosted a Happy Trails celebration Tuesday afternoon at Nunley Park for everyone involved in its summer reading program.

All of the 674 children involved in the eight-week "Discover New Trails With Your Library" program were invited to venture down to the park with their parents and enjoy an afternoon of festivities and food provided by the library and volunteers. The program came to an end last month.

Volunteers set up games while clowns provided the children with a wide variety of balloon creations, and the Paws & Taws square dance group demonstrated square dancing on the tennis courts.

Children ran from the clowns to the seesaw and back to the merry-go-round, only interested in the food and fun provided for them. Hot dogs on the grill, along with chips and drinks, kept the kids fed and happy as they dashed from place to place enjoying the reading program's final event.

The program provided weekly prizes for reading, as well as chances to win in a weekly drawing. Over the summer, close to 1,500 prizes were handed out, with an average of about 175 prizes a week.

The requirements for the program had the children reading for at least two hours a week or reading 10 books in a week. The two-hour reading option was geared toward some of the older children who were reading thicker books and probably couldn't read 10 books in a week. Younger children who were reading smaller books either by themselves or having books read to them by their parents could finish 10 books in a week to fulfill the program requirements.

The amount of time the children in the program spent reading over the summer totaled roughly 3,000 hours.

The library had three major goals in mind when it started the program at the beginning of the summer.

"We wanted to keep kids reading over the summer in order to help them with school," said Kathy Petrie, a librarian. "Also, to encourage family involvement, because reading really provides a good recreation and can connect families who read together."

The last goal in the program was to reintroduce children to the library.

"More and more kids are more likely to sit and watch a movie, play video games and surf the Web than come to a library and read. What we would like these kids to know is that they can come to the library and read for hours, absolutely free," Petrie said. "The library is a safe environment for kids to spend time in and can help keep kids from getting in trouble."

Dianne Firmani, one of the summer volunteers at the library, as well as Tanaina Elementary School's librarian, said that reading over the summer was valuable for the children involved.

"In the fall when the kids come back to school they are tested, and generally there's a drop from where the scores were at the end of the previous school year," Firmani said. "The summer reading program really helps kids maintain and even improve their reading scores over the summer."

The program incorporates more than just reading and prizes into children's lives. Arts, crafts and other elements are part of the library's effort to mix it up and get children excited about going to the library. From rock painting to story time, children of all ages were encouraged to be involved and have fun, library volunteers said.

Over the summer, many children also manage to get a head start for school reading programs, such as the Battle of the Books, a volunteer said. Lists of books are chosen for students from grade three all the way through high school. Students read the books from their list, discuss them, quiz each other over content and then compete in teams that try to correctly answer questions based on the books they've read.

Some of the funding for the summer reading program comes from the library's own budget, but much of the money for prizes and special events comes from donations to Friends of the Wasilla Public Library, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support and enhance the services and programs of the library. They receive donation from local businesses and residents and then helps fund library events like the summer reading program.

Contact Michael White at mike.white@frontiersman.com.