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Trail summer reading program wraps up

The province-wide Strange But True summer reading program has been the “best summer ever,” according to librarian Rhonda Giles.
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A water ballon toss and tie-dying were the order of the day for the last day.

Jekyll and Hyde commandeered the Beaver Valley Public Library this summer.

The province-wide Strange But True summer reading program has been the “best summer ever,” according to librarian Rhonda Giles.

With Giles’ flare for crafts and summer student Amanda Pourmokhtari’s background in science, the duo engaged kids to read about science throughout the entire summer.

“It’s an amazing resource for kids because it’s so easy get out of practice if you stop reading for a couple of months during the summer,” Pourmokharti said.

“When I heard the theme was going to be Strange But True I immediately thought about incorporating science into the program because it’s always strange but true.”

But the idea initially annoyed some of the kids.

“Most of them said ‘Ewwww’ when we told them that we were going to be reading about science this year,” Giles said. “But after they got to do a couple of experiments and crafts, they loved it.

“It was like six weeks of non-stop fun.”

To blow up the event, Pourmokharti invited a special guest to accompany different reading topics each week. Participants from the Beaver Valley Public Library read new books every week, held discussions about the topics and did corresponding experiments or crafts at the end of each lesson.

“One week they made slime,” said Pourmokharti, listing off a series of other successful activities her students completed this summer.

But as the end of summer approaches, the program came to an end, too. On Thursday morning the duo wrapped up the summer reading program with a water-balloon fight, picnic, tie-dying, games and a picnic in Montrose Park.

Pourmokharti and Giles plan to spend the next week gearing up for reading programs during the school year. The next program will focus on marine life.

For more information about summer reading programs in Fruitvale, visit the Beaver Valley Public Library at 1847 1st Street in Fruitvale. In Trail, you can check online at http://trailsummerreading.squarespace.com/.