THANK YOU AND CONGRATULATIONS!

Warmest thanks to all who made our Children's Room summer reading program and finale our BIGGEST EVER! 

451 kids participated and read a total of seven THOUSAND hours!!!!!  Way to go, young readers! And thank you to all the grown ups in their lives who encouraged their literacy and filled out reams of raffle tickets!

Speaking of raffle tickets, here are the winners of this summer's prizes:

KINDLES
Christian Filteau
John-William Washington
Nathan Domingos
Colin Watson

ANT FARM
Avery Phoenix

TEDDY BEARS
Kierra Martin
Monique Baril
Cameron Hurrell

GUMBALL JAR
Haylie Lewis

DOOR PRIZE
Jagger Strickland

It is a pleasure and privilege to once again thank the Friends of the Lane Memorial Library for their amazing generosity, hard work, and support.  Not only did they provide the funds for the four Kindle grand prizes, but they enabled us to hire the Toe Jam Puppet Band, who kept our finale rocking. We are very fortunate indeed to have such a group of dedicated and delightful people supporting the library in a myriad of ways.

Heartfelt thanks to the following stalwart folks who oversaw games, food, check in, clean up, and a variety of other responsibilities at the finale itself:

Fidan Chong
Emma Donnelly
Matthew and Samantha Gibb
Alma Hewitt
Diane Keyes
Jenn Jackman
Anne Marchand
Chris Silverman
Nancy Stiles
Terri Teleen
Jenny Tobler

Many thanks, too, to all the people who brought in water, napkins, and strawberries.  An enterprise of this size could not happen without the help and contributions of such wonderful neighbors.

Jaime Langton, and her daughters Sophia and Becca, did an outstanding job painting faces at the event.  The looooong (and patient) line of children waiting to have their faces painted attests to the Langtons' artistry. Thank you, Langton ladies!

We owe a great debt of gratitude to everyone at the Centre, Marston, and Sacred Heart schools.  They are so gracious in welcoming us in to talk about Lane Memorial Library's summer reading program with their students.  In the five years since we began sharing our reading programs in the schools, we have seen the number of participants triple.

A huge THANK YOU to Flatbread Pizza, who donated 25 delicious pizzas for our party.

Hurray and hugs for our subs, Sandy Kent, Carol McGrath, Nicole Cico, and Rose Hanley.  These marvelous ladies have come to our rescue so many times this summer, often at a moment’s notice, and frequently staying later than scheduled out of the goodness of their hearts and their dedication to this community.  Volunteers Sarah Coffen and Meg Cico helped keep our department tidy and cheerfully made hundreds of paper wall decorations for our readers to sign and hang up.

Most of all I would like to thank Miss Wendy, Miss Julie, and Miss Liz.  They are so amazing, both individually and as a fantastic team.

While Miss Julie is--sadly for us--moving to England soon, I am so glad she was here to witness this record-breaking summer reading program.  You will be greatly missed, Miss Julie, but please know you've left a legacy of exceptional work, great innovations, and much laughter here in the Children's Room.