Proving that kids in Timmins read a lot of books, the Timmins Public Library placed second across Canada for its participation in the 2019 TD Summer Reading Club.
The prize is a plaque and $4,000.
Early childhood education advisor Melissa Vieno leads the program at the Timmins library, which has been part of the club for 20 years.
“All of our hard work and planning over the years, it paid off. And it tells us that we’re doing something right,” Vieno remarks. “Hearing from parents how the program is helping their children is heartwarming and we know that we are making a difference in the community.”
Supervisor Erin Auger says COVID-19 is making it necessary to adopt some changes for this summer.
“It’s going to be a little bit different but it’s going to still have the same interaction,” she assures young readers and their parents. “Children are still going to be able to either Zoom with team leaders to talk about books and there’s going to be challengers to encourage them to keep reading like we did in the past.”
Over two-hundred young readers were part of the program last year in Timmins, which was one of two-thousand libraries involved.