A reading celebration

By Ronald Bond - Argus Observer
Friday, August 17, 2007 10:50 AM PDT

Fruitland - A group of Fruitland youth marked a milestone Wednesday at Fruitland’s Community Park.

The youth, part of the Fruitland Community Library’s summer reading program, celebrated success at the park with a chance to receive prizes, certificates and also listened to some entertainment and important information from “McGruff The Crime Dog.”

The summer reading agenda kicked off in mid-June and Hazel Dalton, a co-organizer of the Wednesday event at the park, said the program is a big success.

“It’s to encourage the young kids to keep reading during the summer and not just during the school year,” Dalton, who is a volunteer at the library, said.

Dalton said the program, however, doesn’t necessarily target a specific age-group.

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“Just anybody — even the younger kids,” she said. “We’ve had some as young as a year old, (and) if their parents are reading to them then they get credit.”

The credits — based on the number of pages read — each child earns goes towards prizes that are handed out at the celebration.

Dalton said Morgan Moritz was the top reader in the 11-and-older age group, totaling more than 2,000 pages, while Elizabeth Otero won the 7 to 10-year-old age group with more than 3,200 pages read. Dalton added there was a 6-and-younger age group, but there was no input on the number of pages read by those youth.

Along with Dalton, Ginger Strawn, Nita Stephens, Ruth Alm and Karen Curtis were all instrumental in putting the program together.

“Some of the kids, they are really (good readers),” Strawn, who started both the library and the summer reading program in 2000, said. “I mean they just devour the books. They absolutely devour them, which is good, you know. It’s good.”

Strawn said the youth get prizes from local organizations, such as Cold Stone Creamery and Wal-Mart as incentives to read more.

However, the youth have to work to receive the rewards.

“I didn’t think it was right (for the youth) to just come into the library and get one (a prize),” Strawn said. “You had to actually read the books, because that’s what the program is all about in the first place is reading the book. Why have a reading program if they don’t have to read the books?”

The number of youth in the reading program has dropped compared to the past, but Dalton said the goal is just to get as many reading as possible, and any number of youth that do read make it a success.

“The main issue is just to keep the kids reading in the summer (and) hold their interest,” she said.