Here are a few highlights from Summer 2024 at RDPL!
We Love a Parade!
As always, we had a blast dressing up and marching through Downtown Red Deer during the Westerner Days Parade! It was a HOT day, and it was so fun to see so many familiar faces as we walked by!
Kids' Summer Reading Club
The 2024 Summer Reading Club embraced innovative approaches to engage young readers, and the results speak for themselves. By experimenting with event formats, reading incentives, and outreach strategies, this year's program engaged with over 2,800 participants between June and August.
Our Kick-Off Party was exceptionally successful, and paved the way for participants to hear about and explore the SRC’s variety of programming. Investing in the event by hiring a bouncy castle and face painter drew in many new participants who may not have otherwise known about the Summer Reading Club.
Having the library as a visible presence at outdoor events like Meet Me in the Park and Outdoor Family Fun was also a great way to strengthen the library’s connections to the wider community. When people see the Summer Reading Club acting as an extension of the library, it is a great reminder of the resources and programming available at all four library branches.
We also discovered significant advantages in redesigning the Summer Reading challenge sheets into a more linear, goal-oriented format. By offering multiple milestone rewards throughout the summer, participants remained engaged, focusing on incremental progress rather than working toward a single goal over the entire summer. Allowing participants to set their own daily reading goal also made the experience more manageable, reducing the pressure of starting late or missing a few days.
Overall, this summer was a resounding success, and what we’ve learned will help future Summer Reading Club coordinators create even more opportunities for literacy and fun!
Teen Summer Reading Club
We were delighted to offer 29 Teen Summer Reading Book Boxes, a new initiative this year! Each box contained a popular Young Adult (YA) title for teens to keep, and included other bookish fun including bookmarks, stickers, and notebooks.
July also marked the launch of our Teen Advisory Discord, opens a new window, creating a safe space for teens to not only share feedback in a low stakes environment, but also connect with staff and each other over shared interests.
The end of summer saw 24 Teen Bingo Challenge sheets returned to us to be entered to win one of three Bingo prizes. One of the Teen SRC Prize winners let us know that they LOVED their unique and awesome prize!
Adult Summer Reading Club
Adult Summer Reading Bingo continued to be quite popular amongst a diverse group of readers. Many readers challenged themselves to achieve a Bingo blackout and they succeeded! We were very excited to have 68 Bingos sheets returned to us to be entered in the draw for some very exciting bookish prizes. Congrats to each of our winners!
We also launched a new initiative this summer, Summer Book Bundles for Adults! First launched at the end of June for an early July pickup, we invited RDPL customers to sign up for a bundle of four library books (to borrow), hand-picked by library staff in the genre of their choice, plus other surprise bookish goodies (to keep!). This was SO popular that we "sold out" within an hour. Since it was such a hit, and we had such fun putting the bundles together, we offered this one more time in the summer, and all of the bundles were claimed even faster the second time! We have decided to make Adult Book Bundles a quarterly initiative, with sign up for our Fall Book Bundles taking place on October 7 (time TBA!). Mark your calendar!
Adult Literacy Program Updates
The Adult Literacy Program, opens a new window is VERY grateful for the generous donation from Tundra Petroleum Services, opens a new window Ltd. toward English language classes. These funds will help meet the needs of many learners at different levels of English learning, bring them closer to achieving their learning goals, and improve the quality of life for many individuals and their families.
The Adult Literacy Program has completed their annual report to Alberta Advanced Education. During the 2023-24 grant term, 269 volunteer tutors helped 546 learners with their English language skills and 56 learners with their literacy, numeracy, digital skills, and skills for learning. These AMAZING tutors have donated 10,785 volunteer hours to the Program. Due to a high influx of learners in the Program this year, finding an individual tutor for each learner became impossible. To reduce the waitlist and provide at least some learning opportunity for individuals, the Adult Literacy Program offered more classes than ever before. 589 learners participated in different classes this year (this is a 104% increase from last year). During the 2023-24 grant year, the tutoring and classes together served 703 learners as compared to 308 learners in 2022 and 531 learners in 2023. A HUGE shoutout to volunteers and staff, donors, and funders for their kindness, dedication, and support to the Adult Literacy Program!
We are always in need of volunteers! To learn more, visit rdpl.org/adult-literacy, opens a new window or contact the Adult Literacy Department at 403-346-2533 or adultlit@rdpl.org, opens a new window.
Katja Had a Great Summer!
We offered Sit, Stay, Read with Katja programs in July, and Katja had 23 reading sessions at the Dawe and Timberlands Branches, where 52 books were read to her by enthusiastic readers! Team Katja was also booked for a number of outreach visits in the summer, including visits to Montessori Classics and Between Friends Camp with the Pawsitive Impact: Storytime for Little Learners, opens a new window program.
There are still a few spots left in the fall Sit, Stay, Read with Katja, opens a new window program that starts on October 1, 2024. Sign up to save your spot!
Learn more about Katja, including upcoming events and how to book an outreach visit from Katja for your school or organization at rdpl.org/katja, opens a new window.
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