Hey! Have you seen our website and FB posts about this year’s Summer Reading Program? It’s going to be different, of course, just like everything this year has to be different, but it’s also going to be AWESOME. We have some incredibly creative and dedicated people working really hard to make it happen, and to make it much more than just another virtual, online reading session.
First, we want to send a very loud, very rousing, and very genuine heartfelt THANK YOU to the Dollar General Literacy Foundation for providing us a grant of $1,500 to help us provide an amazing summer of opportunities for our younger patrons. With this grant, we are going to be able to purchase new technology as well as books and other resources. We are so very grateful and humbled to be a recipient of one of their literacy grants.
“The Dollar General Literacy Foundation is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives through literacy and education. Since 1993, the Foundation has awarded more than $182 million in grants to nonprofit organizations, helping more than 11 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy, a general education diploma or English proficiency. To learn more about the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, visit www.dgliteracy.org.”
This year’s theme is “Imagine Your Story”. Can you imagine a better time to use our imagination? When you read that theme, what do you see? Dragons? Warrior Princesses and Princes? Outer space? Magic? Inventions? Costumes? Animals that talk? At the library, we’re going to let our imaginations run wild with fairy and gnome homes, grab ‘n go kits with project materials and craft ideas, a story path in our parks, and an artistic chalk walk!
There are, of course, still details being worked out, because even though it’s June and normally we would have our weekly events planned and booked, well… it’s 2020 and everything this year has to be different. So I’m not going to share the things we’re hoping to do, in case they don’t work out, but you can count on our summer being lots of fun, full of imagination, and helping kids learn to read, learn to love to read, or continue their love of reading.
One of the ideas that I got excited over is a collaborative summer learning project titled: “Fairies and Gnomes: Imagine Their Homes”. We are participating with many other libraries in the Mohawk Valley Library System. And which I, myself, as an adult, will definitely be participating in. Because FAIRY and GNOME HOUSES!!!
There will be a lot of information shared soon, including a web-site, but here’s what we know / are planning right now: families are invited to work together (using social-distancing guidelines and “found” / natural, non-living materials only) to build fairy and gnome homes at their own residences, on library lawns (unfortunately, our library doesn’t have a lawn… ) in community parks and other local sites – wherever the shy and mystical “wood folk” might be found!
Also, since this is a regional summer project, this is going to be tagged as #518fairyhomes and we’ll be able to share and show our creations, and also be on the lookout for other #518fairyhomes. (similar to the #518rainbowhunt, but with fairies and gnomes!)
To get started, and to help us prepare all of the activities and events, please complete a registration form that is a available on our website :
You may also pick up a registration form from the folder hanging on the library door. We hope to see you this summer!