Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif. -- The Combat Center’s Lifelong Learning Library finished its seven-week summer reading program, Have Book Will Travel, with an event that brought program participants together for crafts, games and prizes at the base library, Aug. 9.
The program started in late June and invited children of all ages to read as many books as they could and receive prizes as they read. Summer reading programs on military installations are mandated by the Department of Defense each year, but each library creates their own program. The library staff chooses the theme and how the program is executed.
“Every installations program is different,” said Ursula Morales, program coordinator, Lifelong Learning Library. “We get to choose our program and activities. What you see here isn’t what you’re getting at (Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.,) or anywhere else.”
The program has seen a rise in participants in recent years with 200 participants in this year’s program.
“It’s a great time for the whole family,” said Jared Glover, operator, Provost Marshal’s Office’s Special Reaction Team and father of summer reading program participant, Ella, 8. “It’s a fun time and really gets my daughter interested in reading and crafts.”
The reading program aims to promote continued reading throughout the summer months and encourages reading with fun incentives.
“We’re trying to promote the opposite of the summer slide,” Morales said. “We get a lot of kids that regress if they are not reading throughout the summer. So when you’re going into 4th grade and you’ve stopped reading for three months, your reading level tends to drop. We want to avoid that.”
The reading program finale gave readers the opportunity to pick up their prizes from their summer of reading, make crafts and socialize with other program participants.
Although the summer reading program is at an end, the library still has reading programs available. Their weekly series of story time develops young readers with games and social activities. For more information on what the library has to offer, call 830-6875.