Before we move ahead into fall, we want to take a moment to congratulate the participants in our summer reading program at the Whitehall Township Public Library.

More than 200 children and parents participated in the program, which officially ended the summer program, entitled "Dream Big…Read @ Your Library."

About 300 children, ages 18 months through 12th grade read 6,700 books in 332,297 minutes (5,538.5 hours).

The library staff included audio books and online reading as well as TumbleBooks to enhance the variety of reading materials available.

Parents were rewarded for encouraging their children to visit the library and read through the supporting programs, "Moms are Reading Partners" and "DAD! You've been spotted @ the library!"

The Roxy Theatre donated tickets for moms to enjoy a special movie night out.

IronPigs donated "Swing for Swine" tickets for dads who showed themselves as role models by attending library events and bringing their kids to the library.

Parents of those aged 18 months to first grade were asked to read to their children during the summer.

All children in this group learning to enjoy reading were awarded a Dream Big bag which included a certificate, book and a plush doll donated by Kohl's.

The following participants stand out as reading the most books are Toddlers – Talha Rabbani, Charles and Lenore Santaliz-Santiago; Preschool – Brianna Wunderler, Gary Marucci, Jordan McElwain, Audra Sommer and Brett Steiner; Kindergarten early readers – Makenna McElwain, Misbah Rabbani; First graders – Priyanshu Purohit, Gabriel O'Brien and Aubrey Steiner.

The goal for those in second through 12th grades was 200 minutes or 3-1/2 hours of reading. Our "mosts" for these grades are Grade 2 – Jacey Horvath and Joseph Marucci; Grade 3 – Michael Gallo; Grade 4 – Selsebila Quaddah; Grade 5, Mary Jo Koch; Grade 6, Urjeet Deshmukh; Grade 7 with the MOST in the program, Priyanka Purohit reading 20,000 minutes – Fantastic! Going to Grade 8, Sam Rappaport; Grade 9, Theresa Koch; Grade 10, Jaclyn Gonzales; Grade 11, Tim Madara and Grade 12 – Elizabeth Duong.

To all of you, well done!

We also want to thank the many local businesses and families who donated their time.

Next year we go underground, "Dig Into Reading!"