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Friday
March 29th, 2024

smoky hills pbs flyerELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Summer reading has officially kicked off for Liberal Memorial Library, and Tuesday, one of the summer’s first events will be taking place.

Smoky Hills PBS will be visiting Liberal Memorial Library at 11 a.m. Tuesday and at that time, Smoky Hills PBS staff will present their Share A Story “All Together Now.” 

“The presentation is typically about 45 minutes long, and we typically follow our learning triangle, which is 'Read It, Watch It, Do It.' We will listen to a story, watch a video, make a fun craft, and each child will also get a book to take home with them,” Smoky Hills PBS Director of Marketing Amanda Smith said. “With Share A Story, we travel throughout Central Kansas and Western Kansas and visit the libraries in our coverage area, which we always love to do.”

Smith said she and her staff are always excited to have the chance to make their way to Southwest Kansas. 

“This Share A Story program is a great way for us to be in the communities we serve, which we always love, and it also gives us the chance to give free educational resources to children in the viewing area, which is something we're passionate about,” Smith said. “Education is definitely at the forefront of what we do at Smoky Hills PBS, so that's why we love the Share A Story program, because it combines both of those aspects. With Liberal being quite a distance from where we're headquartered, we love any opportunity to get to that area of the state so we can get to that corner, and we love bringing our resources with us for the children and parents. We're looking forward to seeing everyone in Liberal, and we're looking forward to visiting all the other communities and spreading the word about everything we bring to Central Kansas and Western Kansas. We're proud of what we do on the education side of things, so we're definitely excited to be back this summer. We'll be featuring a PBS Kids character, and I know there are a lot of PBS Kids fans in that part of the state, so we'll be featuring one of the characters they'll be familiar with, so I'm hoping that will be a big draw for families to come and have some educational fun and also receive a free book.”

Smith also talked about the importance of programs such as summer reading and Share A Story. 

“Share A Story gives us the chance to give resources and books in children's hands, I know there are many families who unfortunately don't have a book collection of their own, so this gives them those free resources,” Smith said. “This also encourages parents to read to their children and spend time with them doing some crafts and other different activities to enhance their education. It's really exciting for us because we love being in the libraries and being a part of the communities we serve in Central Kansas and Western Kansas. We also want to encourage children to read and dig into all the educational resources the library offers in their community. The summer reading program helps children become better readers and will hopefully inspire them to build that love of reading, because reading has been proven to enhance those education skills and really use their imagination. Participating in summer reading will help prevent that 'summer slide.' Studies have shown that prove if children keep up with their reading throughout the summer, they have an easier time going back to school when it starts back up in the fall.”

Smith said there are also a couple new things that were recently rolled out.

“We also recently rolled out the Smoky Hills PBS mobile app, so people everywhere can remain connected with us through that and find more information about not just Share A Story but our other resources,” Smith said. “The app gives people the chance to watch us and explore all of our different resources, and it also helps everyone stay in the know of what we're doing.”

With many other stops along the way this summer, Smith said she and her staff are excited to be traveling to so many communities in the state. 

“We will be traveling throughout all of Central Kansas and Western Kansas, including Stockton, Dighton, Hays and Logan, among many other communities, and visiting their libraries, and anyone wanting to see our full schedule can visit smokyhillspbs.org and take a look. By the end of the summer, we'll have visited more than 50 libraries in those regions, so we will be traveling quite a bit, but we're really excited,” Smith said. “Like I’ve said before, Share A Story gives us the chance to go into the communities we serve, and we also have several educational resources and opportunities on our Web site people can take a look at. We have a big area to cover, but our team has great coverage, so we're excited to be able to go into especially the smaller communities within our viewing area and provide these free resources and free events.”