Medieval fair celebrates summer reading program

  • Published
  • By Samuel King Jr.
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  More than 180 children, parents, knights and ladies attended the medieval faire at the youth center to celebrate their summer reading achievements July 29.

The celebration was the culmination of the 2011 "A Midsummer Knight's Read," program held by the base library. More than 380 children signed up for this year's program and approximately 1,400 participated in the various summer activities including book clubs medieval combat, story time and kayaking.

The goal of the program is to combat summer loss or a summer reading gap, where students may lose two months of reading achievement and more than two months of mathematics grade-level equivalency if they are academically inactive, according to Dorothee Bennett, Eglin's library technician.

"The best way to combat summer loss is to read at least six books during the summer, read something every day and spend time reading aloud," said Marcia Treuter, Eglin Library director.

Keeping with this year's theme of knights and ladies, the youth center gym was transformed into a castle where children played games, watched knights battle and picked up their summer reading prizes.

"The fantasy element is very popular right now in literature and movies," said Bennett. "We were able to really capitalize on that and inspire the kids' reading choices in developing the programs."