Summer reading

REDKEY — Several weeks into summer break, the library at Redkey Elementary is open and lively, filled with children and parents reading and making crafts once a week.
The school library now opens every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., giving access for children to do something during their break. Summer hours began June 15, and will continue through July 20.
School librarian Cathy Fugiett has brought the library to life for the past three summers and this year is no different. She is not paid but is rewarded with the knowledge that children continue to learn even in the summer because she keeps the library open.
Some children walk in groups or ride their bikes to the library, while others children come in with their parents.
Fugiett said both take the initiative to visit the library.
“Kids will start asking me early May, ‘Are you opening the library this summer?’ and I’ll say yes, and also parents will be asking me out in the community.”
During the school year, Fugiett works at Redkey Elementary and Westlawn Elementary in Dunkirk.
Fugiett, a Jay County native, has always had a passion for reading. She was raised in Portland and lived five houses down from the old Jay County Public Library on East Walnut Street, which she would visit constantly. She went to Jay County High School and worked at the school library. Fugiett studied school media sciences at Indiana University and Ball State. She worked at Northeastern Elementary in Wayne County and later got a job at Redkey elementary. She’s been working there for five years now.
Jenni Brown, a parent who brings her children every week, said the kids have given good feedback about the program.
“I love it, the kids look forward to it every week. They get out of the house, they get to read books over the summer,” she said. “I look forward to it too, I like getting out of the house and it’s nice to get the kids out too.”
The library’s schedule coincides with the Jay County Public Library Bookmobile’s schedule and the free lunch summer program in the school. The bookmobile has a selection for parents and is located outside Redkey elementary on Wednesdays. Last year the Redkey Elementary library and Jay County Public Library decided to work together in bringing the bookmobile the same day so that children had a larger selection of books to choose from and so parents bringing their children can also benefit.
Shirley Dollar and Kathy Minnich operate the bookmobile, which makes rounds during the school year to county elementary schools, offering a wider variety of books.
“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for the children to have all these books available,” Minnich said. “Reading can take you anywhere, so it’s important the continue reading.”
This is the fourth year Fugiett has opened the library during the summer.
She said once she received the principal Tom Jerles’ permission, she created programs for summer readers.
The first two summers, Fugiett kept a reading program, sending home reading logs and asking students to log the books they read over the summer.
The logs were turned in when school started, and a celebration was arranged to give prizes to those who completed the logs.
The second year Fugiett received more than 100 reading logs, and though the students were not required to visit the library every week, many still did.
After seeing the large number of children and parents that visited the library, she called the Jay County Public Library to bring the bookmobile the same day the library opened. Fugiett talked with youth services librarian Linda Shreve, who in turn asked Fugiett to collaborate will the Jay County Public Library’s summer reading program.
The Jay County Public Library has “One world, many stories” as its summer reading program, and Redkey follows the program as well. On Wednesday children had the option to stick around and make a doll using fabric and drawing faces on white cardboard.
So far this year, there have been more than 70 children who have signed in, more than 20 adults and more than 323 books that have circulated.
Fugiett said she enjoys her job as a librarian, and she actively promotes reading everyday during the school year.
“We need our kids reading over the summer. They can’t stop reading, so this helps,” she said. “There’s not a lot of places for the kids to go during the day here in town, so this provides a place once a week.”
She said encouraging children to read also helps them in the academic field, but reading goes beyond just that.
“I want the kids to love reading,” she said. “You can stop science and math, but you can never stop reading; it’s just so fundamentally important.”
Fugiett brings her own children to the library every week as well. Of her three children, Daniel, 10; Sophie; and Luke, 4, Sophie helps out the most. Cathy Fugiett said she doesn’t have any volunteers to help run the library in the summer, but her daughter helps as much as any other volunteer would.
Leaning against the desk, Sophie Fugiett watches as her mom scans the books that have been returned, and gets ready to put them back on the shelves. She brought her own pile of books, with a selection for herself and her two brothers to read during the week. She even found a book appropriate for the 4th of July weekend. She told her mom she wants to be a librarian when she grows up.
“She will greet students and ask them to sign in if they forget,” Cathy Fugiett said. “She helps me shelve books. She helps with the craft tables. She is the runner between the bookmobile and the library. She is a special girl.”




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