Ritzville Public Library plans summer reading activities for children, adults

With the beginning of warm weather comes the end of school. The Ritzville Public Library has planned a packed summer to provide activities for local children to remain entertained.

The free reading program will kick off the summer. This year it is themed “On Your Mark, Get Set… Read!” to tie in with the Summer Olympics.

The reading program is open to all children, from newborns to teenagers.

The reading club will start on June 13 when participants can pick up their reading packets. Children can sign up at the library or at any library program this summer.

The summer reading goal is 10 hours by Aug. 31 and if this goal is reached, they will earn a free book and a bag full of other prizes. An entry into the grand prize drawing will also be awarded to each who reaches the goal.

Last year, the Library’s grand prizes included a Kindle, two bikes and many other prizes.

This summer reading program aims at helping children combat the “summer slide”, a term used to describe “the tendency for students, especially those from low-income families, to lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year” as stated by the Colorado State Library.

The library will also be partnering with the Ritzville Grade School to offer focused reading assistance led by a teacher in conjunction with the regular library programs.

The target audience for this school reading program is third and fourth grade students. Any Ritzville student in kindergarten through fifth grade are welcome to sign up by contacting the school at 659-0232.

In addition to the summer reading program, the library has scheduled numerous activities over the course of the summer months. The first event will be a show from LBow the Clown at the Ritzville City Park at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 17.

Every week in Ritzville through August the library will hold a Lego Club, Pokemon Club, craft and activity days, as well as free movies. They are also hosting a monthly video game tournament.

The craft and activities will be sports themed and includes a kid yoga session with Pat Tremaine, a visit from the Mobius Science Center, a party to celebrate the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony on Aug. 5 and a visit from Ronald McDonald.

The Lind Community Library will also have weekly craft and activity days throughout the months of June and July.

A full schedule of these events is available on the Ritzville Library website at http://www.ritzvillelibrary.com.

For ages 12 and up, the library is planning a Coding Camp in Ritzville with three two-week sessions. The sessions will include activities such as using Makey Makey kits to create interactive video games and learning how to program robots.

Adults will also have a few activities to look forward to. The library is bringing in three authors for summer to do readings from their novels and signings as well.

The first of these will be Patricia Briggs who is a writer from the Tri-Cities. She will be in Ritzville at 5 p.m. on June 9, to read from the newest novel in her Mercy Thompson series. The Liquid Lit Book Club is currently reading the first in this series for the month of June and will hold their meeting after the reading at Memories Diner.

On July 21, K.B. Laugheed will be at the library at 5:30 p.m. to discuss her first novel “The Spirit Keeper” and its sequel, “The Gift of the Seer”.

The final author visit will be from Debbie Macomber on Aug. 15. Macomber is known for writing romance and friendship stories. Three of her novels have been made into Hallmark television movies. Her most popular series, “Cedar Cove” was converted into the Hallmark Channel’s first-ever original, scripted series.

The library will also be offering a series of introductory computer classes at the H.E. Gritman Senior Center every Friday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. from July 15 through Aug. 12. The topics of these classes will include how to use email, the Internet and Microsoft Word.

Another exciting event scheduled for the summer is a talk from Peter Davenport of Harrington on July 9 at 2 p.m. Davenport is the Director at the National UFO Reporting Center.

He has held this position since 1994 and reports on UFO sighting cases regularly on the Jeff Rense Radio Show on top of lectures on specific UFO cases such as the Phoenix Lights sighting. Davenport witnessed several nighttime sightings over Washington state during 1992 and will be sure to astound all who attend.

All of these programs are free and open to the public. Residents can call the library at 659-1222 with questions.