JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
The Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Library got summer started May 18 in tasty fashion with "Reading is so Delicious!" - the 2012 Summer Reading Program's theme.
In attendance were Col. Scott Peel, 902nd Mission Support Group commander, and guest speaker Terrye Heagerty, 902nd Force Support Squadron services director.
The program encourages children and young adults to read as many books as they can during the summer break, which presents a unique challenge, Rudy Rodela, 902nd FSS supervising librarian, said.
"There can be a lull in students' summer breaks when they aren't required to read anything," Rodela said. "This is when we'd like them to read as much as possible."
Rodela believes the driving force to break the lull is parents.
"They are the ones who bring the kids into the library," he said. "Parents help prevent backslides with their kids' reading during the summer months when they encourage them.
"Our key demographic is younger children - once they get into the habit of reading regularly and get the feel for the library, they can become lifelong frequenters of libraries."
When children become library patrons, their parents tend to become more involved and interested in what the library offers to them, Rodela said.
The dependence between children and their parents becomes important to summer reading programs such as the one offered at Randolph, he said.
The theme for this year's program was selected for libraries across the Department of Defense and encompasses how everyone should approach reading and learning from books, Gail Trevino, 902nd FSS programming librarian, said.
"Reading books is such an important activity," she said. "It keeps you busy and engaged. You could learn something new every time you read."
This doesn't only happen by becoming engrossed in a book's plot; frequent readers become better readers by expanding their vocabulary, Trevino said.
"Part of reading is learning 'delicious' new words, which is something we'll stress in this year's campaign," she said.
The program is open to children of all ages, including high school-aged children, who are dependents of Department of Defense ID cardholders. Signup for the program is ongoing at the base library, Bldg. 598, and is free.
A large part of the Summer Reading Program at Randolph is contests geared to engage participants of all ages.
A few of the contests include a poetry contest and a bookmark design contest with various prizes contestants can earn. High schoolers in grades 9 through 12 will have a chance to win a Barnes & Noble Nook (electronic book reader) if they register for a book review contest, where they will be required to read five out of eight books on a reading list and submit book reviews.
For parents, there will also be the opportunities to swap recipes with each other, which ties in to this year's campaign theme, Trevino said.
Prizes will be awarded Wednesdays beginning May 30 through July 18, and a finale party is scheduled July 28.
Registration for contests began Wednesday and all due dates will be June 28.
Thirty-eight children signed up during the kickoff, Trevino said, and she expects more than 100 participants to join this year's summer reading program.