2020 Summer Reading Program goes virtual

This year’s Hastings Memorial Library Summer Reading Program, which began this week, will run in a different form than it has in the past due to COVID-19 restrictions and safety guidelines. This program’s activities will center around virtual and take-home projects.

The library is still closed to the public and will continue to keep its doors shut until mid-July at the earliest. Despite not allowing visitors, the library has continued to operate throughout the pandemic with their “curbside checkout” service.

The Summer Reading Program, with the overall theme “Imagine Your Story,” will work similarly to curbside checkout.

The program is called Summer Reading in a Box. Families who have signed up to participate will receive a box filled with one month of crafts and activities to cover June and July. The box’s contents will relate to each week’s particular theme. 

Enrollment for the program is ongoing, and parents can sign up their children through the Google document on the library’s facebook page, or by contacting the library directly. Boxes with materials will be placed outside the library for parents to pick up.

For younger children, the library will hold Zoom storytime sessions on Tuesdays at 10:15 a.m. Older kids will get to participate in virtual book talks and discussions about each week’s activities.

Third through sixth grade will have three program options: a Harry Potter book club, an Imagine Your Story writing group and a Zoom workshop with Deb Kuenning, an extension educator for Perkins County.

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