Many area youth walked through these doors this summer to take part in the Washington Free Public Library’s free programs. Photo by Sally Y. Hart

While students have had a summer vacation away from school bells, desks, and text books many have been actively participating in the Washington Free Public Library’s summer reading program.

Youth librarian Jenisa Harris explains this year’s theme was Build a Better World and students took part in planting a community herb garden, raising money for clean water systems, and donated food to HACAP. Harris also tracked how much reading was done, “I track the reading minutes for the K-2nd, and just K-2nd alone they had over 10,000 minutes read. Third through fifth we had 25 turn in Bingo cards, so it takes them about the whole month to do it. So, we had a lot of reading minutes, a lot of check outs, a lot of kids in the library which is the most important.”

She explains why it is important to have children learning and reading during breaks from school, “A child can lose up to two reading levels over a two-month time over the summer. So having fun, easy ways for them to read sets them up for success going into the next school year.”

The new school year for Washington students begins August 23rd.