The Fantastic End

 Calhoun County Library Summer Reading Finale

The Calhoun County Library held the Summer Reading Program Finale to celebrate the accomplishments the participants have completed at the end of July.

On July 31, 2025, after a program with magician and illusionist Jesse Greene, it was time to present the results of a wonderful Summer Reading Program.

First, we gave out Participation Certificates to everyone who registered and logged minutes and gave out Certificates of Excellence (Completion Certificates) to everyone who read 300 minutes or more. This was over 150 certificates designed, printed, and ready to hand out!

·         We had 138 participants in our Summer Reading Program.

·         We had 72 participants complete the challenge.

·         We read 101,176 minutes in total.

Then, we presented the Grand Prizes. For everyone 30 minutes read and logged, the participant got an entry in their respective age category. So someone who read 30 minutes still had a chance to win the end of the Summer Reading Program Grand Prize the same as someone who read 300 minutes, who just had more entries. We had multiple winners and we changed up the prizes this year.

·         Early Literacy: Elizabeth Ott and Lorelei Trotter (LeapPads)

·         Children’s: Rylee Strock and Shana-Yessenia Alvarez (Echo Dots)

·         Teen: Bailey Williams and Laionnah Poole (AirPods)

·         Adult: Heather Hess and Jon Coble (Kindles)

To complete the Summer Reading Program and start getting our county ready to go back to school, The Jeffcoat Law Firm set up a table to give away something amazing: over 150 backpacks filled with essential school supplies. These backpacks were completely free! We would love to thank The Jeffcoat Law Firm for their support and generosity to our community. With school starting, this was a huge help. Thank you, The Jeffcoat Law Firm.

This event still was not over. Of course, we had to give out free books and end the summer with ice cream as they exited the library with all of their other goodies.

The Summer Reading Program is completely free to attend and enjoy. We would like to thank everyone who came and volunteered. 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.