ROCHELLE — On Friday, Aug. 9, The Flagg-Rochelle Public Library hosted its End of Summer Reading Celebration, which included water balloons, outside water games and a foam party.

The library has hosted a summer reading program for over 50 years to offer area kids a place to go and activities while they’re on summer break from school. The theme this year was Read, Renew, Repeat and the library offered an activity nearly every day including storytime, Books with Friends, a Lego Club, gardening activities, movie nights, and animal demonstrations.

“This is exactly what I want to see at the library,” Library Outreach Clerk Ashley Capes said Aug. 9. “I want to see families and our community come together and have a good time. This summer's reading program went great. We were super busy all summer and we did a lot of community events like National Night Out and the Cypress House markets. I think this is the most people we've had for a summer reading program in a long time.”

Capes said the summer reading program strives to be inclusive for everyone, including those that do and don’t find a lot of fun in reading. The library works to get as many people in the door as possible to experience what it has to offer, she said. 

“I think we were successful in that this summer with our variety of programming we were offering with some reading days and some non-reading days,” Capes said. “It was a lot of fun for everybody. Summer is always a lot of work for myself and our entire staff. We have a wonderful staff here and we all support each other in all of our ventures we do. It was a lot of work, but it's definitely worth it.”

Reading over the summer helps students to avoid a summer literacy backslide, Capes said, and teachers can notice upon their return to school in the fall whether a child spent time reading over the past two months.

“Teachers really appreciate it when kids come to the library and keep their reading skills sharp over the summer and that they're in an environment around books and learning,” Capes said. “I think that's very important. We have some fun fall programming coming out, so keep an eye on our Facebook page. We have a lot more coming up.”