The Tulsa City-County Library began offering a Summer Reading Program in 1982 to encourage a love of reading and stop the “summer slide” of reading skills in young learners. Now, 34 years later, the library would like to hear from those who participated in the program as children.
What medal or prize do you remember earning? Was there a book you read or program you attended at the library that you especially loved? What do you remember about your summer library experience with the most fondness?
The library is particularly interested in pictures of readers holding a past reading log or wearing the medal(s) they earned during the summer reading program as children.
Tulsa City-County Library employee Barbie Benson, who works in Customer Care, was an avid reader before she was employed with the library.
“When I was a kid, the library reading program was to me as integral a part of summer as going swimming and playing with fireworks. I remember clutching my worn reading log each week as I went to the Brookside Library to get my stickers,” recalled Benson. “Thinking back now I recall there were coupons and prizes for reading extra books but I don’t remember what those were. All I remember were those medals. They were so shiny and always had a cool theme, my absolute favorite is the space medal, and represented all the hard work I’d put into reading. I still treasure them to this day and have them on my desk where I work…at the library!”
Send your memories and pictures to Tulsa City-County Library’s children’s services coordinator, Laura Raphael, at Laura.raphael.tulsalibrary.org. The library will feature your stories on our Facebook page and Summer Reading Program website throughout the 2016 program, which begins May 31 and continues through Aug. 6
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