Executive Director’s Blog: Summer Challenge

Greetings:

Summer is a time to make learning fun by giving kids and teens the freedom to explore new activities and to read whatever they like. The Library District’s annual Summer Challenge program gives them the motivation to follow their own interests and prevent school skills from sliding during the long summer break.

It’s also the perfect antidote to the “I’m bored” blues that can set in, keeping young minds challenged and horizons expanding.

This year’s Summer Challenge theme is POWER UP YOUR ROBOT, and I’m proud to say that we had over 500 attendees at our kickoff at the East Las Vegas Library. We registered over 2,000 sign-ups in the first few days.

Here’s how Summer Challenge works:

  • Participate in weekly activities that can be enjoyed in library branches and at home. Parents are looking for summer solutions, and they will find tons of unique activity suggestions, which can inspire new hobbies, interests, and abilities.
  • Read (or being read to) whatever they like – The Library District website offers children from babies through grade 12, thousands of online reading options, including eBooks, audiobooks, magazines, poetry, song lyrics, graphic novels, and comic books plus storybooks and picture books for little ones.
  • Participation is easy – Kids & teens will track their activities and reading progress online at LVCCLD.Beanstack.org or on paper logs (part of the Summer Challenge brochure), which are available in library branches. Babies up to age 5 can also participate with a special log just for them, tracking activities like singing and playing together, plus every book that they read, or is read to them.
  • And did I mention prizes? There are multiple opportunities to win:             
    • Book Prizes – Win a book each time you complete a Summer Challenge level.
    • Branch Grand Prizes – Enter for a chance to win grand prizes at your branch when you complete all three Summer Challenge levels.
    • Super Reader 900-Volt Challenge – Complete extra reading time and enter to win a #GetCarded library tote bag filled with an iPad mini, prizes from the Vegas Golden Knights, the Las Vegas Lights, and more!

We so are grateful to CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara and his team for their second year of working with us to distribute Summer Challenge materials to youth throughout the valley. Kids received the Summer Challenge brochures in their classrooms, but you can also pick one up at any of our 25 library branches, located here.

I encourage you to share our Summer Challenge program with your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and neighborhood kids. They can sign up and start participating at LVCCLD.org/SummerChallenge, which includes a Spanish language portal. The program runs now through Saturday, July 31, 2021. 

The Library District wishes to thank all of our Summer Challenge partners, which include: Clark County School District, City of Las Vegas, Get Outdoors Nevada, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Foundation, Las Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Lights, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, and Vegas PBS.

Sincerely,

KELVIN WATSON
Executive Director

Reading Recommendations

The Underground Railroad

A Lesson Before Dying

The Nickel Boys

Rest in Power

Conjure Women

Red Island House