The Madill City County Library held a Summer Reading Program for the children of Marshall County this summer. The SRP is a program to help children to keep their brains active during their three-month break from school. Studies show that children lose 22% of the skills and knowledge if they do not read during the summer break.
The theme for the 2020 SRP was “Imagine your story.” Typically, the Summer Reading Program lasts for four weeks. Library Director, Shirley Harkins said in the past, they would choose a day of the week for the children to show up to the library. The four-year-old through first grade would go in the morning for an hour and a half and the second through six grades would go in the afternoon. They would also go to the
They would also go to the day care, while some day care children were bussed to the library and read to the two and three-year-old children. They would also do crafts with them and sing songs.
This year, the library was forced to change up how they did the program due to COVID-19 and the need to socially distance. Harkins said that each week on Monday, the children would pick up their sacks that included a craft, color/activity sheet, and a story sheet with a You-tube link for the reading of the story. She said they brought sacks
She said they brought sacks to the Fran Drummond Day Care Center and distributed out sacks to the children there. Typically, the day care goes to the library for the program, but they were unable to this year. On the fourth and final week of the program, the children turned in their reading log. The log was something the children used to keep track of what books they read throughout the month of July. Out of the 161 children
Out of the 161 children enrolled in the program, 15 turned in completed reading logs. The children logged over 41,000 pages for the month of July. The library had to close
The library had to close down for a few weeks, so they were unable to host the end of the program celebration on the original date and hand out the prizes. Harkins said once they reopened, they contacted the readers and had them go to the library to get their picture taken and receive their prize packs. The prizes were a new SRP t-shirt, backpack, library card holder, water bottle/travel mug, book reading light, pencil and bookmark. They were also allowed to pick out another prize and a new book. They even gave prizes –a
They even gave prizes –a new book, pencil and bookmark – to the rest of the children; no child left empty-handed.