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Monroe County Public Library sees record participation in summer reading program

By Joanie Dugan

Posted August 16, 2024

More than 2,600 children took part in the program this year. (Pixabay)

The Monroe County Public Library summer reading program saw record participation this year, with more than 5,000 people participating.

This year’s program had a space theme: “Adventure begins at your library.” Readers use a game board to log their reading, do activities and earn prizes.

“We try to design it so that there's a little something in there for everyone," said Dana Duffy, program coordinator at MCPL. “The programming is a really broad spectrum. We have programs that are very passive, where people just come in and they sit and they watch a performer, to very active programs where we have kids running around, or we have adults creating crafts.”

Duffy said the program is for all ages, including adults.

“It’s to show parents and people of all ages that when children grow up in homes where they see people reading, it really makes a huge impact into turning them into future readers,” Duffy said.

More than 2,600 children took part in this year’s program, up from about 2,500 last year. Duffy said that number has been increasing steadily since 2020. That summer, there were 815 readers.

This year, more than 550 teens participated — the most since 2016. There was also a big jump in the number of adult readers, from 1,600 in 2023 to almost 2,200.

“We've tried really hard to especially engage parents when they come to the children's department to sign up their children and their tweens to also get them involved,” Duffy said.

To finish the children’s game board, kids complete activities and read at least 24 books. That means at least 55,000 books were read this summer.

The tween program tracks reading by the number of minutes read. It requires 720 minutes of reading to complete the game board.

Prizes included bookmarks, coupons, and books. The adult and teen programs also held a drawing for grand prizes, which included gift cards and gaming systems.

“Our main goal is to show people that literacy is not only important, but it's actually part of making your life more rich,” Duffy said. “It makes your life more involved. We try to make a lot of community connections as well, so people feel like they're part of our community.”

Next year’s program theme is “color our world.” It will feature the work of artist Mike Mullan.