By Kelly McCabe, Youth Services Coordinator
We were happy to attend a paw-tastic Summer Reading program at the Los Lunas Public Library with popular library performer Denise Gard and her trained border collies, Joey and Kira. Following this year’s Summer Reading theme of Color Our World, Detective Joey was on the case to locate the missing Mona Lisa from the Louve museum. Library patrons young and old were entertained by the pups jumps, twirls, and trips through tunnels to solve the crime. Young patrons were also dropping off their beloved stuffed animals for a Stuffed Animal Sleepover at the library.
This program was part of a jam-packed 8-week Summer Reading Program featuring special performers, STEM activities, crafts, reading logs, and raffles. Catherine Best, Children’s Librarian, shared that Summer Reading has had a great turnout this year with very positive feedback from patrons. She further shared, “I feel like it is a huge benefit for our community because it encourages our patrons to not only continue reading through-out the summer, but also we offer free programming to families who maybe cannot afford to vacation during their summer break.”
We also enjoyed stopping into the STEM Lab to see STEM Librarian Ronda Sanchez, who was finalizing program plans for next school year. STEM programming plays a large part of the library’s afterschool programming, as well as summer programming.