Thank You to Our Summer Reading Sponsors!

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Summer is drawing to a close and, with it, this year’s summer reading program, Reading Takes You Everywhere.  This year in Litchfield, we had 349 kids signed up to participate.  Dassel Library had 171.  Grove City had 36, and Cosmos had 32.

To participate in the reading program, kids played a game that involved earning spots on a board by spending time reading and by doing other activities like attending library programs and playing outside.  When they reached each spot on the board, they got to choose a prize.  Everything from books to certificates for pizza to small toys were available to choose from.

Teens had a simpler version of the reading log that was all about hours spent reading over the summer.

We couldn’t have given out all of those incentives without our generous local sponsors.  I’d like to thank all of the businesses and organizations that gave prizes and donations for the summer reading program to one or more of the libraries in Meeker County:

Friends of the Litchfield Public Library
Dassel Friends of the Library
Dassel Community Chest
First National Bank of Grove City
Cokato-Dassel Lions Club
McDonald’s
Pizza Hut
KLFD Radio
Burger King
Pizza Ranch
Jimmy’s Pizza, Litchfield
Jimmy’s Pizza, Dassel
Willmar YMCA
Casey’s: Cosmos, Dassel, and Litchfield
DQ, Cokato
Qdoba
Red Rooster Foods
Subway, Cokato

I’d like to say a special thank you to the Friends of the Litchfield Public Library for sponsoring the highly-popular visit from the Minnesota Zoomobile (225 people came!) and to the Cokato-Dassel Lions Club for sponsoring Dassel Library’s afternoon for kids at the Xtratyme Tecknocenter, which was also full to capacity.  These were great opportunities for kids in our communities to have enriching experiences without having to pay admission, and families were very grateful. 

Kids can still turn in their reading game sheets for a few more days, through Friday, August 31.  I hope that kids in our communities have continued to read throughout the summer, whether they participated in our summer reading program or not.  Best wishes to all of the students and teachers as they begin the new school year!