The library’s program had

62 participants.
By Eileen M. Adams
Staff Writer

RUMFORD – Tracy Chartier and her family got back from a three-week vacation in Connecticut and Massachusetts just in time for her children to get their awards for successfully completing the local library’s summer reading program.

Each year, she said, she wanted her children, who read a lot on their own, to take part, but each year the family takes a vacation during the four-week reading program. So this year, she and Justin, age 8, and Gabrielle, age 5, checked out more than 50 books from the children’s section of the Rumford Public Library and kept track of their reading times.

Following the awards ceremony where each received an award, they returned the books.

Justin and Gabrielle were two of 62 area children who took part in this year’s program named in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight – Take Flight and Read.

Reading takes the mind on a flight of the imagination, said children’s librarian Ginny Todd as she first read a story of a flying cow, then passed out certificates stating “I Earned My Wings at the Library” and prizes.

“Every child is a winner,” she said.

Volunteer Kim Hamel then passed out small airplanes on which each child’s name was written.

Using your imagination is one of the reasons Phoebe Pike, age 12, from Rumford, likes to read.

“Your dreams become reality,” she said.

While Phoebe, who will enter seventh-grade at Mountain Valley Middle School in the fall, likes to use her imagination, she also likes history and books that reflect historical characters.

Among her favorites read this summer were “Oliver Twist,” by Charles Dickens and several of Shakespeare’s plays.

“Reading is fun. You don’t have to worry about your problems when you are reading,” she said.

Todd said Phoebe is one of the summer program’s participants who would have read all day if she could.

Youngsters from age 2 to 14 take part in the program, with each age group agreeing to read a specified number of minutes per day. The two days remaining will feature a performance of “The Little Mermaid” on Thursday and a teddy bear picnic on Friday.

eadams@sunjournal.com

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