
Jazzmine with a prize for completing ten hours of reading. Prize donated by Friends of Drake Library.

Khloe and her twinkie minion.

Shelby won an art kit for completing the required reading for the Summer Reading Program.
Every Hero Has a Story! Summer Reading Program 2015 Read! Listen! Learn!
The library’s summer reading program has come to a close. Since the beginning of June, we’ve turned ourselves into superheroes, created animal hero puppets, shown appreciation for our local fire fighters and veterans, created amazing Lego creations, watched super hero movies and had parties with our American Girl dolls and our pet dogs. We’ve been taught amazing and interesting things by the Blank Park Zoo, Centerville Fire Department, Appanoose County Museum, Honey Creek Resort and the Science Center of Iowa. We’ve read books and won really cool prizes!
337 children registered for the summer reading program. If you were lucky enough to be one of the first 100 families to register, you probably have one of our “A Library Hero Lives Here” signs in your yard. 168 children completed the program by reading at least 10 hours for a total of 1,680 hours. There was also 1,590 extra hours read by these participants for a total of 3,270 hours read by our Super Reading Heroes! It has been our record breaking summer, with more participants and the highest completion rate that we’ve ever seen. Way to go kids!

Brenda and her prize for completing the 2015 Summer Reading Program.
An amazing fact about our summer reading program is that it is absolutely free to all participants. Our prizes, programs, supplies, snacks and crafts are all paid for by the Friends of the Drake Public Library, local restaurants and volunteers. A big THANK YOU goes out to The Friends of the Drake Public Library, lead by Colene Chebuhar (who also took pictures at our programs – yay!), American Legion, Centerville Fire Department, Hardee’s, Sonic, Subway, Pizza Hut, VFW, and of course, the staff and volunteers here at Drake Public Library. Your donations of money, materials, and your time made this summer great for the children that we serve.
So, why do we do this? We do this because we love children, we love books, and we love seeing children excited about reading and learning! We’re beating the “Summer Slide” here by putting books in the hands of children who are on break from school and engaging them in fun learning opportunities.