Summer break is beginning for kids across Yuma County, providing a break from their usual studies, but that doesn’t mean all learning has to come to a stop.
Each year in order to prevent summer brain drain, the Yuma County Library District holds its annual Summer Reading Program series.
This year, the program kicks off May 30 with the theme, “Unearth a Story,” which encourages readers of all ages to dig into a good book, uncover hidden histories and explore the past.
Klarissa Fausto, community relations coordinator for the Yuma County Library District, explained that the program is the library’s biggest annual event.
“We've heard from a lot of people in the community, parents especially, that kids kind of enter a summer slump,” Fausto said. “You know, they're out of school, they're kind of stuck inside, maybe stuck on a device, and we thought, ‘What better way to reach this part of the community than to offer them a little nice incentive to get them to read more?’”
The program begins with a summer reading challenge lasting May 30 through July 18. Readers of all ages are encouraged to participate by keeping track of their total minutes read through the Beanstack app. When they finish, they’ll receive a virtual raffle ticket for a chance to earn prizes.
The library has some suggested readings befitting of the Unearth a Story theme, but readers can pick any books they’d like.
“Any reading counts, even if that's being– you're reading aloud to somebody, you can count that as well,” Fausto added.
In addition to the reading challenge, the library district is hosting various events throughout its libraries. These include activities like hatching your own dinosaur egg, going on a dino hunt and excavation, and creating amber slime.
Some events will be featuring Wildman Phil and his wildlife critters, too, which Fausto said have become popular over the years. There will also be educational performances from the Wacky Science Show, which is new to the series this year.
“Everything's completely free and open. I will say that for our bigger free presenters – for Wildman Phil and for the Wacky Science Show – of course there's so much interest and people want to attend, but we always suggest getting there early,” Fausto said. “Some locations will have a ticket system, so I encourage any interested parties to give their local library a call, figure out when tickets are going to be handed out, and just kind of plan for a little bit of a wait and just a busy bit of a day.”
For more information on all the events for the Summer Reading Program, visit the library’s page here.
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Reporting for this article is supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation.
