our community: WEATHERFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY
Summer Reading Club
and Friends of the Library
bring reading to the
community
By PAULA NADZIEJKA
I
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f you can’t imagine the Weatherford Public
Library without the Friends of the Library,
you’re right! There wouldn’t be one without the
other in Weatherford.
Our library was born in 1959 as a children’s
library, brought to life by donations and nurtured
along by volunteer members of the City Council
Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). Soon the PTA
could no longer operate the nascent library and
the Friends of the Library was formed to keep
the library open. The Friends of the Library
provided that vital service until the children’s
library was adopted by the City of Weatherford
in 1968.
Our library has continued to grow (and is
growing now perhaps faster than ever) and the
Friends of the Library have continued their work
to support and promote the library for nearly
50 years. And though their contributions are
too many to list, it’s no surprise that the heart
of their work today is still focused on meeting
the needs of Parker County’s young readers. The
Friends of the Library began providing financial
support to the summer reading program in 1989,
thanks to a generous gift made by Caroline
Dickerson in honor of her late husband. Over
the years, the Friends took on an ever-increasing
role in paying for the program and have funded
it completely for several years now.
The Summer Reading Challenge has been a
staple of fun and learning in Weatherford for
decades. The days of each child logging their
reading hours at home and then recording them
on a 3 X 5 notecard at the library have given
way to an access database, but the essence
of the program remains: read more books, get
more prizes. The library awards prizes at vari-
ous numbers of reading hours, and even throws
an ice cream social for big readers at each
summer’s end.
Summer Reading Challenge gives so much
more to our kids than an incentive to read.
It has become a summer-long program of
educational and enrichment activities for chil-
dren aged 0 to 18. The Weatherford Public
Library offers a program every single day of
the summer. Over the decades, the children of
Parker County have been treated to a wondrous
variety of performances, demonstrations and
activities. We’ve honored our western heritage
with singing cowboys and rope tricks, taught
love of fitness with jump rope teams and dance
parties, explored the natural world with live
wild animals, nurtured the love of science with
Discovery Station, and delighted countless
youngsters with magic shows, puppet theaters,
and storytelling.
Perhaps one of the best features of the entire
program can be summed up in one simple word:
free. The value to families to have something
enriching, inclusive, and safe for their children
to do with no price tag is tremendous.
The Summer Reading Challenge, with its
emphasis on literacy and educational events,
is an invaluable tool in the fight against what
educators call the summer slide. Studies have