JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- The Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Library is scheduled to host a kickoff event June 1 to start the Summer Reading Program.
During the event, children will receive free books and all participants will be able to get help with registering for the program. Also, U.S. Army Alaska’s 9th Army Band will be in attendance to perform from 9 to 10 a.m.
The program offers the JBER community the opportunity to collect prizes for time spent reading. From June 5 to July 14, participants can submit minutes read through the online database.
“The program is for everybody who wants to participate,” said Pamela Medolo, JBER Library supervisory librarian. “It’s [open to] adults, teens, children and also children who are too young to read themselves but are read to.”
The goal is to keep children reading over the summer by linking it to something fun, Medolo said.
“Educators believe there is a loss in reading skills over the summer when children get out of school,” Medolo said. “We want to try and stop the ‘summer slide’ of lost reading skills.”
All registrants will receive a free T-shirt while reading prizes will be split into separate categories for children, teens and adults. Teen and adults are eligible to receive prizes at the 250 minute mark and the 500 minute mark. Children are eligible to receive a prize at every 100 minutes up to 500 minutes.
“This year’s theme is Reading by Design,” said Jody Evans, JBER library technician. “Each week throughout the program we will also have an event for the whole family relating to design.”
The weekly events begin at 1 p.m. and activities include:
-June 7 Inukshuk Means Welcome, an Inukshuk building activity
-June 14 Pinot and Paint, painting and snacks
-June 21 Streamlined Canines, meeting working dogs and learning how they are trained
-June 28 Getting Dirty, building a small garden
-July 5 Build a Bridge, design and build a bridge
-July 12 Paint Party, painting ceramic figures
July 14 is the last day to enter minutes into the online database and July 21 is the last day to pick up earned prizes.
With the anticipated flux of patrons the library is expecting this summer, they have made some changes to weekly story times.
“Our Thursday story time will be on hiatus and our Tuesday and Wednesday story times will take place from 10 to 10:30,” Evans said.
To register for the program visit, https://elmendorfrichardson.beanstack.org.
For more information on the events or the program, call 384-1640 or 384-1648.