HOULTON, Maine — This year’s summer reading program at the Cary Library, “Catch the Reading Bug” was very popular with kids in the Houlton area.
Each week as children involved in the program read their books they chose from six different insects and placed them on the bulletin board. Each time a child reached their goal, a butterfly was placed on the board with their name and the number of books they had read. The library continued the annual practice of providing a nutritional snack to each child for reading a book. As each child reached their halfway goal they received a Pizza Hut certificate and water bottle.
During the month of July, each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a grant from the Maine Nutrition Network provided the children with the opportunity to participate in “Lettuce Do Lunch!”. Each day the children were given a recipe card based on the nutritional food choices of the day. The children made their snacks and at the end of the program created their own recipe books to take home.
The final week of the program included three tours. On Monday, 48 children and their parents joined volunteers and members of the library staff for a walk to the Meduxnekeag River where Environmental Scientist/Aquatic Ecologist Angie Reed, provided information on local river ecology and hands-on instruction in identifying local insects in various stages of growth. The children received their own observation kits and examined the world of aquatic bugs.
Tuesday, Christopher Plummer, the ORKIN man, gave a lecture to 58 children and their parents describing what is involved in his job and the many different types of insects found in Maine. Finally, 32 children and parents joined Brittany Benn as she showed the proper way to start a worm farm, and the children gleamed in excitement while handling the red wigglers.
Everyone reaching their designated goal received a certificate of completion, another Pizza Hut certificate and a prize was given at the final party, which was held Thursday evening.
A special treat for those who attended Thursday night was the opportunity to get an insect tattoo from TaTitude. The Farrar family set up their equipment and was kept very busy applying the temporary airbrush tattoos. Almost all of the young readers left the library sporting a new tattoo on their arm.
This year 112 children signed up for the program. Readers consisted of all ages from preschool to those going into the ninth grade, and 82 of the children reached or surpassed their goal with a grand total 1,876 books.
Cary Library extended their thanks to the many sponsors who helped make this year’s program successful.
Donations were made by The Rose & Samuel Rudman Library Trust, Maine Nutrition Network, Jean’s Serendipity, Pizza Hut and the Farrar Family, who provided their tattooing skills on the Thursday night closing ceremonies.
The library also wished to recognize and thank all the staff, the devoted volunteers, Jacob, Laura, Lauren, Zara and Peggy, the presenters and all the donors that helped make this summer’s program a huge success.
