After two years of mostly online activity, the Thousand Oaks Library’s 2022 Summer Reading Program bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, pulling into its orbit more than double the number of participants from the previous year.
Supported by a major contribution from the Friends, the Summer Reading Club drew in approximately 2,500 participants, ranging from pre-readers to grandparents. Together, they spent a total of 1.7 million minutes reading and accumulated points and won challenges to enter drawings for prizes that ranged from Scaredy Squirrel plushies to $100 Visa gift cards.
“Moving to in-person programming and having 81 teen volunteers around to assist families and answer questions certainly encouraged more people to join this year,” said Gena Ball, a Thousand Oaks librarian for youth services. “Summer reading is a shared experience in that there’s a lot of opportunity for folks to engage.”
In keeping with this summer’s theme, “Read Beyond the Beaten Path,” storytellers, magicians, musicians, craft instructors, puppeteers — and even a juggler and cartoonist — drew crowds to the two libraries and beyond — with some events held at four neighborhood parks, all sponsored by the Friends. No wonder, then, that nearly 1,300 visitors a day dropped in to spend time in the libraries this summer. Summer days were jam-packed with 144 diverse programs and events appealing to all age groups.
All of these programs were embedded with the mission of energizing people’s interest in reading, especially for students, who can lose up to two months of learning when they return to school if they don’t read during the summer, said Kareena Kiefer, a youth services librarian on the committee.
The Summer Reading Club represents the most intense effort of the year by the Library to provide children’s programming.
“The 2022 Summer Reading Club was a tremendous success, in large part because of the funding and support the library receives from the Friends of the Library,” said Darren Jeffrey, deputy director of library services. “It is not an exaggeration to say that we simply could not offer the kind of comprehensive, engaging program we do every year without the help of the Friends.”
Summer 2023 promises to be just as exhilarating, thanks to the Friends’ continued support.