ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The month of May is here, and high schools and colleges are hosting graduations as young people, and some not so young people, finish the current step of their formal education and begin the next chapter of life.
For younger students and some adults, the month likewise means the start of summer vacation, and that means fun can be found in many different forms.
Local libraries have been providing some of this fun for many years in the form of summer reading programs, and this year, Kismet Public Library is providing its annual program.
The theme for this year’s KPL program is “Adventure Begins at Your Library,” and Director Suzan Nelson said the theme centers primarily on camping.
“We have started a bingo challenge instead of setting a goal of how many books you want to read,” she said.
Nelson said the bingo challenge includes all of the library’s June activities and some of the July activities.
“It’s just like playing bingo,” she said. “It could be, for example, read a book about a dog, read a graphic novel, attend Mad Scientist, make a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day craft here at the library, read a fairy tale, and you get to mark which ones you did.”
After summer reading participants mark off the activities they did on their bingo card, they can attend the Summer Bash Summer Reading Wrapup July 17 to receive a water bottles.
“These bottles are made for the kids to put in their backpacks and take to school,” Nelson said.
This will be KPL’s first year of doing the program in its new building on Main Street, and Nelson said many activities will take place at the library, while others will take place at the Kismet Pavilion. Either way, children can come in for all the fun activities summer reading offers this year.
“We’re going to have different kind of games for that day set up,” she said. “One of those days we may show a movie and have popcorn. We have some steam games and the steam 3-D printer the kids can enjoy doing.”
Nelson said the new library building creates a more friendlier environment for some activities than the Pavilion.
“We’re very grateful to be able to use the Pavilion, and there are a couple of projects we will do over there,” she said. “With the Mad Scientist, we will be doing that over there due to the fact there’s no distractions. Kids want to see what kind of toys we have.”
Nelson said having activities in the Pavilion allows leaders and participants to focus more on the activity at hand.
“We would still use the Pavilion, but here, it’s cool,” she said. “We’ll have drinks for the kids. It’s user friendly here too. If there’s things going on, it’s not just one specific thing. We haven’t got the back room completely done. We may use it for a couple of things, but we’re still working on getting the back room completely done.”
Last week, KPL hosted a severe weather presentation from the National Weather Service in Dodge City. The presentation was originally scheduled for April 23, and when it was postponed until April 30, community leaders initially wanted to have the presentation at the Pavilion. It was later decided to have it at the library, as adequate room could be found there.
“We moved a few bookcases, and we had a nice area open we put 30 chairs in,” Nelson said. “That’s also how we’ll show the movie. We’ll gather the kids with the screen. It’s past where the computers are.”
This year’s summer reading program officially kicks off with May 11 with a Saturday Mother’s Day craft, and Nelson said she is thrilled at the possibilities the summer will bring at the Kismet library.
“This is very exciting,” she said. “It’s exciting to see the parents get excited when we tell them about it. We know when the kids get in here, they’ll be as excited as we are.”
Some of the new KPL building’s features such as a coffee bar have bee a hit with patrons of all ages.
“It’s a nice asset to have,” Nelson said. “We also provide drinks for the kids supervised. Adults can get their coffee, and the iced coffee is what is the big hit. We’ve had people ask if they could donate a coffee jar to put a dollar in now and then.”
Wednesday was the first day to sign up for this year’s summer reading program, and Nelson said six participants had already signed up as of that afternoon.
“We’re getting ready to go get our flyers in the school in Kismet,” she said. “I will take flyers over to Plains because we’re in the same school district, different age groups per town. We’ll be having them sign up as they come in. We’ve also got a text group going. We can send out information on text when events are happening. That’s been a big hit to a lot of the moms. They’ve got quite a calendar to keep for getting kids to all the activities. They have said this text messaging has helped quite a bit.”
Nelson said advertising is also done through flyers and Facebook, with the hopes of getting about 100 participants this year, up from last year’s 60.
