Summer reading party held at library

PLAINS – A group of local students who logged nearly 800 hours of combined reading time over the summer celebrated their achievement at the Plains library last Wednesday morning.

The theme of this year’s summer reading program was fizz, boom, read.

In total the 74 students who partook in the reading program logged around 784 hours of summer reading time over the six weeks of the scholastic program.

The get together was in recognition of a group of local students who took part in the Collaborative Summer Library Program through the Plains Public Library.

“We do the reading program every summer,” Terrell said.

Terrell added the summer reading program begins every year a couple of weeks after the beginning of summer vacation and wraps up with a few weeks left in the student’s vacation, before the beginning of the new school year.

To mark the conclusion of the summer reading program participants celebrated at the Plains library last week during the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 6.

Carl Benson, a science teacher at Plains High School, performed a variety of creative experiments.

“In one of the experiments they added milk to instant pudding. It was a mess,” Terrell said with a laugh.

The nationwide event looked to combine the fields of science and humanities getting young students to participate in both fields in a fun and educational variety.

In a nod to the science portion of the program, Benson performed several other experiments in addition to the messy and fun instant pudding exercise.

Benson used a homemade Tesla coil to demonstrate electricity, used acids and bases to turn liquids different colors and a demonstration with bright orange balloons to demonstrate the potency of static electricity to the young students.

The celebration included the awarding of prizes to the winners of the summer reading program, who logged the most reading hours.

A variety of prizes were given out to the hard working students in recognition of the time they devoted to completing the youth program.

Michael McCarty won a football and a blanket, Kellie Erwin took home a toy monkey and a book, Allisa Otto was awarded a slip and slide and Emmy Russell won a toy elephant and an accompanying book.

Additional winners included Rylee Gannarelli who received nail art and a blanket, Boone Stratford won a razor scooter, Jeremiah Ericksen got a super soaker in recognition of his reading time, Robin Stuart earned a magic doodle and Jim Hanson received an air hog.

With nearly 800 total hours of reading completed by the 74 students in the program throughout the course of the summer, the participating students should be readily prepared for the coming school year in September.

The annual program is a fun way to keep area students involved with their education during the months of their summer vacation.

The prizes and celebration at the library following the six weeks of reading adds fun to the program and brings the joys of reading to future generations.