Summer Reading Finale

            The Calhoun County Library celebrated the end of the Summer Reading Program with a local performance, an awards ceremony, ice cream, and the distribution of the grand prizes.

Celebrating Summer Reading is something that the Calhoun County Library looks forward to every year. It’s a fun-filled time of learning, laughing, and reading, and participants even get prizes for their efforts. Every summer is filled with excellent programs that are entertaining and educational, and they always focus on literacy. We pull books for display after each weekly program so that children can check out books about what they have just seen.  This year we had a great turnout with over 120 registered readers and in total we logged well over 32,000 minutes of reading. That’s a lot of reading!

The finale took place on Thursday, July 27, 2023, at 10:30 AM. For the first 20 minutes, we had the pleasure of having the Ukaloonies perform interactive songs such as “B-I-N-G-O,” “Rockin’ Robin,” and “Calendar Girl.” Both children and adults were dancing and singing along while our local group of rock stars made beautiful music for us all to enjoy.

After that engaging performance, it was time to give out certificates and brag tags to everyone who participated in our Summer Reading All Together Now Program. We even had a few patrons that completed the entire challenge, meaning they read and logged 600 or more minutes throughout the summer, and they received medals during the finale. The names are as follows: Aria Coble, Elena Coble, Jessie Coble, Hannah Nelson, Joanna Nelson, Sarah Nelson, Matiaz Serrano, Monica Serrano, Rita Serrano, and Isaac Williams.

Following the certificate presentation, the grand prize winners were announced. These winners were randomly and digitally selected from all those who logged at least 60 minutes of reading. The winners of the two early literacy tricycles were Aaliyah Edmond and Tilly Hair. The four winners of the children’s bicycles were Matiaz Serrano, Angela Griffin, Cailin Shirer, and Rita Serrano. The two teen Kindle winners were James Prickett and Miryam Gutierrez. The two adult Kindle winners were Jean Miller and Stephanie Burnette.

What a great time we had all summer long from watching puppet shows to making origami animals to holding tarantulas! It was all because we love to read! Thank you to our sponsors, the State Library for providing funding for our programs and Save the Children for providing our giveaway books. They made it possible for this summer reading program to be such a success!

This project is made possible by a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the South Carolina State Library.