​Yearly support makes Summer Reading Program possible

Posted on August 22, 2022

Over 20,000 children read for nearly 15 million minutes this summer as part of the Library’s Summer Reading Program. The Library offered free workshops, programs and great books for all ages. Children and teens received prizes once they hit one, five, 10, 15 or 20 hours of reading.

Research shows reading just 15 minutes daily helps combat the “summer slide,” or the decline in academic skills that can occur when children are out of school for extended periods. The Summer Reading Program helps combat the summer slide by encouraging children to record their time spent reading in exchange for prizes.

One child, while picking out a prize book they had earned for reading 20 hours, found the book “Same But Different: Teen Life on the Autism Express” by Holly Robinson Peete on the prize book cart. Finding the book made their day. “This book is about someone with autism! I have autism! I didn’t know they made this book.”

Every year the program can only happen thanks to the support of over 100 major donors, including family funds, donor-advised funds and estate gifts. To see a list of the 2022 donors, you can visit www.indypl.org/programs-events/srp/kids.