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By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Unfortunately, the summer is quickly coming to an end. Football is back on television, every store is advertising “back to school” sales, and coffee shops are bringing out the pumpkin spice.
So, to celebrate the end of their summer reading program, the Dover Library held an ice cream social while the weather remains a valid excuse for eating scoop after scoop.
Each kid or adult in attendance grabbed a bowl of vanilla and headed over to the toppings table, which featured classics like M&M’s, whipped cream, hot fudge, and some less conventional choices like licorice and Swedish Fish.
If they got bored, they could complete a coloring assignment of an ice cream sundae or fill out the giant poster board which asked what everyone’s favorite ice cream flavor was. One of the answers sparked a brief discussion among attendees about whether some kid was trying to be funny or if “grasshopper pie” is a real ice cream flavor.
(It turns out that “grasshopper pie” is made out of fudge bits and mint ice cream. Who knew?)
The ice cream social was very crowded, which didn’t surprise Head of Children’s Services Nancy Tegeler, but she was quick to note that not only was the social a huge success, the whole summer has been.
“Every summer we have a summer reading program for kids and teens - this was for the children. This year, the name of it was ‘A Universe of Stories.’ We had an awesome summer, so we’re celebrating the end of an awesome summer. We had over 200 kids sign up for the summer reading, we had 50 events and something like 3,700 people come to our events, so it was a very successful summer.”
One of the things you’d notice at the ice cream social was how many kids were wearing necklaces with badges on them. These children were showing off their hard work, as Tegeler explained.
“In our summer reading program, the kids can earn badges by either logging their reading minutes or by doing special activities. So, you’ll see some of the kids around here have necklaces on so they can put their badges on their lanyard. The program attempts to engage kids all through the summer, so they come back to get their badges as they earn them. New activities are unlocked every week.”
School starts next week, so the ice cream hopefully softened the blow of having to return to class - in addition to celebrating how great the summer was, of course.
