According to the library’s Director of Youth Services Sue Hart, an estimated 250 people attended Astronaut Academy, with indoor and outdoor activities for elementary-age children such as craft stations, moon sand and foam rocket launching.
Every year, the Ellensburg Public Library’s summer reading program hosts events with themes decided upon by the Collaborative Summer Library Program. Over 16,000 libraries around the country are taking part in this program, which celebrates space exploration on the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing.
“It’s a way for the community’s youth to be engaged with reading and activities that are provided by the community,” Hart said. ”It’s a program that keeps kids engaged with reading, keeps their reading skills up so they aren’t falling behind when they go to school next year.”
Kids also can score prizes. Children and teens get reading logs to record their summer reading. And once they finish, they get prizes donated from both Winegar’s and Jerrols. Teens also get a chance to win a Kindle.
According to Hart, the Ellensburg Public Library’s summer reading program is, in part, supported by the Friends of the Library volunteer organization which provides funding gathered through used book sales.
“Things that the city budget can’t pay for, we do,” said Marianne King, president of Friends of the Library.
In the library’s auditorium, a projector played videos taken aboard the International Space Station of astronauts such as Commander Scott Kelly and Koichi Wakata reading children’s story books while in orbit. These videos are publicly available in English, Spanish, and Japanese, read by astronauts from around the world.
In a different room, children could make astronaut helmets out of paper, color, stack cups, and get their faces painted. Many parents attested to the benefits of having public library events for children, including Eileen Reyes, mother of 4-year-old Eian Reyes.
“It helps his social skills, allows us to do activities in the summer to get him involved in the community, and it gets him to go to the library,” Reyes said.
Source: Summer reading program blasts off at library | News | dailyrecordnews.com