Dive into summer reading at Clearwater Library

Clearwater Public Library has an exciting summer planned, full of reading, learning, and exploring "Oceans of Possibilities."

Events will begin Wednesday, June 1, at 10 a.m., at the Clearwater American Legion. Polka Dot Entertainment will present the "Balloon Animal Adventures Show – Under the Sea."

The show will be a live presentation featuring animal balloons, with actors in the spirit of Jack Hanna, Steve Irwin and the Kratt Brothers.

The second event, "Wildlife Encounters," will take place at the American Legion on Friday, June 3 at 1 p.m. Visitors from Gretna will bring real exotic animals to see and touch.

Wednesday, June 8 at 10 a.m., there will be a Teddy Bear Mobile at the American Legion, where students can make a hypoallergenic stuffed animal that comes with a backpack, insert and birth certificate. Pre-registration is required as space is limited.

On Friday, June 17, at 1 p.m., The Lego Guy from Colorado will be bringing some of his favorite under the sea Lego sets. He will give a brief history on Legos, allow students time to build their own creations and give students the opportunity to show their projects to the rest of the group. There will be about 15 prizes at each event, where participants are entered into a drawing for attendance.

The summer reading challenges start Wednesday, June 1, when summer reading participants can stop into the library to get a bingo card. There are three different cards based on age: birth through preschool, kindergarten through third grade, and fourth grade on up. Once the participant has received a bingo, they can come to the library to put a token in the Plinko board to see the number of prizes they will win. If a reader achieves a blackout on their bingo board, they will be entered into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card.

Library director Kathy Feusse has reached out to businesses in the community for prize donations to give away as well.

Also starting June 1, participants in sixth grade and older are invited to roll a die that will determine the question asked from a question card. If the student gets the question correct, they will receive two scratch-off tickets; however, if they guess incorrectly, they will receive one scratch-off ticket. They can then scratch the ticket off to see if they win a prize from the snack shelf. If they do not win a prize from the shelf, they are entered into a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card.

Summerland Public School will also be offering a reading incentive program this summer, and both programs will piggyback off each other. After the busy events in June, there will be more to come in July. To find more information on further events, feel free to access the Facebook Page ClearwaterNEPublicLibrary and website, clearwaterpubliclibrary.org.

"I'm really excited to get the kids back into the library and to connect with the students and kids in the community again on a more personal level," stated Feusse.