2017 Summer Reading Club Wrap Up!

I cannot believe that summer 2017 is drawing to a close this weekend and that our summer reading club is over! This year was bigger and better than last year, with more prizes and incentives for the children and teens of Montauk to keep up with their reading all summer long!

This year's theme was "build a better world," which encouraged summer readers to explore how they can make the world a better place for everyone to live in.  A lot of the summer reading programs centered on the theme of building a better world in the literal sense; I held two Lego Builders Club events, as well as an awesome program on Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture for kids and 3D building and design for kids and teens.  I also had programs where children learned to build a better world through art, recycling, care for our environment and local animals and reading.  Some fun programs included our Beach Buoy Painting program where children painted reclaimed beach buoys, Summer Shell Mobiles, Creatures of the Night and Birds of Prey with Quogue Wildlife Refuge and the Long Island Native Reptiles and Amphibians program with the South Fork Natural History Museum.  I loved seeing so many children and teens attend our programs this summer while learning different ways to "build a better world."

Summer Reading Club 2017 was very successful this year! There were a total of 150 children and teens who signed up for the reading club, which was more participants than last year! Children who read books and reported them would get a raffle ticket for every two books they completed themselves, or for every 5 books that were read to them by a parent or caregiver.  Raffle tickets were used to be entered to win all different prize bundles that were on display in the children's department.  This year we had 11 prizes that were being raffled off, which included Kindle Fires, an iPod Shuffle, a trip to the Montauk Lighthouse,  an aquarium bundle, a Star Wars bundle, a Lego bundle, a Frozen bundle, a Paw Patrol bundle, a Thomas the Train bundle, a day out in Montauk bundle, and a day at the movies bundle.  These prize bundles were an extra incentive for kids to read more and everyone was really excited to try to win one of the larger prizes!

Not only were there more people signed up for the Summer Reading Club, but the participants read a combined total of 2,784 books over the course of the summer!!!!! I am SO proud, shocked and blown away by the amount of books that were read this summer!!!! Children and teens read over 1,000 more books than last summer, which is absolutely amazing! I did the drawing for the prizes on August 22nd and the winners were as follows:

• Kindle Fire Winners: Devon R., Andy W., Nina R. and Jake D.
• iPod Shuffle Winner: Jaya L.
• Trip to the Montauk Lighthouse Winner: Elle R.
• Aquarium Bundle Winner: Miles W.
• Star Wars Bundle Winner: Ellington T.
• Lego Bundle Winner: Faith M.
• Frozen Bundle Winner: Riley O.
• Paw Patrol Bundle Winner: Michaela M.
• Thomas the Train Bundle Winner: Althea B.
• Day Out in Montauk Winner: Sara S.
• Day at the Movies Winner: Carli S.

Congrats to the raffle winners and to all of the children and teens who participated in the 2017 Summer Reading Club!

Also, a big thank you to the local businesses in town and patrons that donated prizes for the reading club, including Gringo's Burrito Grill, Corey's Wave, Captain Kid Toys and the Montauk Lighthouse. I truly appreciate your generosity and thank you for supporting summer reading and the children of Montauk! Until next summer, keep reading!