Library reading program draws hundreds of eyes

AMESBURY — With thousands of hours of reading logged and a new school year on the doorstep, Amesbury Public Library staff reflected on how their summer reading program helped folks get ready to hit the books.

The program began June 15 and reached the finish line Aug. 15, with hundreds signing up and participating and logging their hours through the virtual Beanstack app.

“People definitely enjoy it,” said library Youth Director Clare Dombrowski.

She said the program is broken up into kids in fifth grade and younger, a teen group of sixth- through 12th-graders, and adults.

“We kind of divide it along the way of the new schools structure,” Dombrowski said.

She said the programs for kids and teens typically draw the most people, with 215 children and 35 teens logging 3,200 hours of reading over the summer. While happy with the response, she said the program still has yet to rebound back to what it was before the pandemic.

“We are still figuring out our rhythm after COVID and closures and things,” Dombrowski said. “It’s definitely similar. We do also collaborate with the elementary school so that signing up for our summer reading is their summer requirements, so that also creates having more kids sign up for that as well.”

Library Director Aimie Westphal praised the work Dombrowski has put into the program.

“Clare does a really great job of having such an interesting variety of ways that people can participate,” Westphal said.

Dombrowski said they are very deliberate with the program’s timing so that it lines up with the return to school.

“Just getting people back into the school feel,” she said.

Dombrowski said the adult program had 65 participants who logged some impressive totals of their own.

“They had about 2,100 hours, which is a lot. They had some very enthusiastic readers,” Dombrowski said.

In addition to tracking their reading, people could also submit drawings or paintings of their favorite animal for the library’s bookmark contest.

“We had 11 winners from all our different age groups for our bookmark contest,” she said. “Kids have gotten really excited about both winning and then also being able to choose a bookmark.”

In addition to having their bookmark published, the winners also received T-shirts.

Another element of the reading program was “Read and Bead,” which saw participants receive a keychain for registering. Whenever someone came in with the start of an hour or more completed toward an activity badge, they could go to Amesbury Youth Services and add a bead to their keychain.

“What I like about the summer is that there’s sort of something for everyone, so everyone takes joy out of it,” Dombrowski said.

Members of the kids group collected badges based on reading or activity goals, with the Topsfield Fair donating tickets to those who earned six or more badges.

“We had 101 kids who were getting free tickets to the fair,” Dombrowski said.

Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: [email protected].

Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: [email protected].

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