The Chestermere Public Library is encouraging youth in the community to continue reading throughout the summer by kicking off the Summer Reading Program on June 18.
The Chestermere Public Library hosts the Summer Reading Program every year, however, this year, university summer students will be organizing the programs and activities.
“One of our goals in our 2021 budget was to hire students. We saw a real need in the community for student employment, it was a win-win for us to hire them to do our Summer Reading Program, which is a key time of engagement, and to provide them with summer employment during COVID-19,” said Chestermere Public Library Executive Director, Miranda Johnson.
“They are going to be facilitating the Summer Reading Program, we have self-driven activities and things that people can do on their own and log reading minutes,” Johnson said.
The Summer Reading Program is offered for ages three to 11, and activities will be designed to fit the needs of different age groups.
“Summer Reading Programs are shown to bridge the slide back that students have, it’s a program with fun activities that encourage continued reading over the summer, so the summer slide back doesn’t happen,” Johnson said.
“For the younger kids it’s school readiness, through workshops and the formalized reading program it prepares younger students for school and what it would be like, it’s critical,” she said.
Not only is the Summer Reading Program important for youth in the community, but it’s also a key time for the Chestermere Public Library to engage with the public.
“It’s a time when people are reading, and everybody wants a good book for the summer, it’s a key time for us,” Johnson said.
For summer student Jessica Rai it was important to get involved with the Summer Reading Program as she has been previously involved in the UCMAS program, and she wanted to get more involved in her community.
While summer students Sharan Malli, and Ainsley Sorensen, both in education programs were eager to get more experience working with kids and running programming.
Youth participating in the Summer Reading Program are required to complete a reading log sheet to collect tickets that will be used to enter to win prizes including a beach basket, family game night basket, outdoor games basket, an iPad mini, and scooters.
“Youth can come here and read, we have reading challenges, we have daily workshops for them, activities, and science experiments, depending on how old they are,” Rai said.
Throughout the program, the summer students have also planned for Fun Fridays where a magician and mad scientist will perform.
During the Summer Reading Program, Malli is looking forward to having fun with the program participants, while helping youth build skills they will need throughout school.
“For the younger kids it’s developing their fine motor skills, there’s going to be a lot of colouring, drawing, and fundamental movement skill development, we’ll be playing a lot of games and sports outside,” Malli said.
To register for the Summer Reading Program visit, https://www.chestermerepubliclibrary.com/, or call the Chestermere Public Library.
