Join the Friends of the Library and support the Summer Reading Club

From the HoCo Library:
      How can you help students to maintain their academic skills during the summer? Please join the Friends of Howard County Library and support Summer Reading Clubs. If you are already a Friend of Howard County Library member, sharing with friends makes more friends! Last year more than 30,000 children and teens participated in Howard County Library’s summer reading clubs, reading and listening to countless books! 
      Children need to engage with books every day so they can maintain and strengthen the reading skills they learned during the previous school year. If students don't read throughout the summer, they risk losing those skills. Studies show this loss is nearly impossible to make up, compounds over time, and particularly impacts children in underserved communities.
      Did you know that in communities near three HLCS branches, nearly 24 percent of students are on free or reduced lunch programs? Summer reading clubs have the potential to benefit those students who can least afford to lose ground, and who are most likely to suffer from summer reading loss and fall far behind their peers.
     Please consider joining the Friends now through our online donation page: jointhefriends.org.
      Please also thank these local businesses next time you visit them. They give significant prize incentives that motivate families to register and participate in the summer reading clubs.
Baltimore Orioles
Clark’s Elioak Farm
Columbia Association
RacePace Bicycles
Toby’s Dinner Theater
WR Grace

Each $35 Friends membership provides:
board books for the youngest age group of readers (infants to age 3),
performers and presentations at the Summer Reading Kickoff on June 1 (nearly 4,000 attendees!),
materials to promote Summer Reading Clubs in schools (HCLS instructors visit every elementary and middle school in May and June), and printed game boards to track reading activities and allow children to claim prizes donated by local businesses.
    Become a Friend today and come to the June 1 Summer Reading Clubs Kickoff at the Miller Branch to see how your membership makes a difference to families in our community.

P.S.
The History of the Universe from the Beginning to End. Nobel Laureate, Dr. John C. Mather, Senior Astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and author of The Very First Light: The True Inside Story of the Scientific Journey Back to the Dawn of the Universe. 05/30/13. 7:00 PM Miller Branch