Old and New Faces in the Youth Services Department

Some of you may have noticed that Aliscia Stein has left her ususal spot in the Youth Services department. Aliscia has returned to being a "Stay-at-Home Mom" again. Since her husband took his new job, Aliscia found she needed to be available for all her daughters' after school extra-curricular activities. We will miss Aliscia's quiet energy and easy smile. We want to wish her, Rebecca, Rachel, and John our best as their family starts their new activities.



The next time you are in the Library in the afternoon, stop by the Youth Services desk to welcome our newest employee Linda Buttell. Linda joined us August 18 from a background of teaching young people, so we know she will do a great job with our Little Listener Lapsit story time. She is already using her creative juices to decorate the Annex Community Room for fall.

School is Starting! Make the Library Part of Your Year!

Many of our young people are coming into the Library excited (or not) about the start of another school year. It seems like summer vacation just started! We have loved seeing each of our patrons throughout the last few months and want to encourage them to keep Library visits as a part of their regular routine. The Library is a great place to study, find reference materials to help out with a class project or paper, grab an uniterrupted half hour of reading time after school, or join a craft class.



We hope to add a few of our special activities back into the schedule this year as well. I will keep you posted on what ideas we are thinking about. We also welcome YOUR suggestions. Just click on the "Comment" word under this posting and tell us what YOU would like to see the Library explore as a class or club. Please put LIBRARY COMMENT in the subject field of your email so I will know it is not spam.



The Youth Advisory Council (YAC) and our Teen Volunteer Program need new members. Many of our past members have gone on to college this year! You do not have to be a member of both. Check in with the blog or look at the tri-pods to see when the first meeting will be held this Fall. I will also try to notify your school libraries.

Summer Reading 2009 Ends With Fun for All

Thursday, July 30, our Summer Reading Program: READ on the Wild Side, culminated with an awards ceremony attended by 150 adults, parents, grandparents, and care givers. Prizes were awarded to the top readers in each age category 5 - 12. Pre-school drawing winners and school trophy recipients were also announced. Shirts were then distributed to all the readers who reached their summer reading goal.

As the Youth Service Staff reflected back on this summer's program, we all agreed that this one was extra fun for the readers and all who participated. Of course, we could not have had such success without the support of all the Library staff, the committment of our Library Board, the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and care givers who not only read with and record logs with the readers, but bring the readers to the Library each week during the program. Our city schools are also a great support to the program. Not only do they allow me to visit with the students every spring to explain what the program has to offer, they also set summer school reading goals for their students. These are tracked throughout the summer, posted on our bulleting board, with trophies being awarded to the schools who reach their goal.

Another component our Summer Reading Program is our wonderful corporate sponsor, Weyerhaeuser, who allowed us to bring in such fabulous family entertainment each Thursday. Last, but certainly not least, we extend a big thank you to all our local sponsors who gave prizes or who gave donations to purchase all the shirts! Amounts large or small are all important to making a happy, fun, reading summer for the young people of our community.

We invite everyone to stop in the Youth Services Department in late August to view our scrapbook of the Summer Reading Program. Reading is such an important life skill. Ask questions about how you can be a part of this important community program that reaches approximately 500 children.