Another Busy Summer Comes to an End at Hastings Highlands Public Library

Mayor Tony Fitzgerald and library CEO Wendy Keating getting ready for our Summer Reading Challenge draw.

Our summer recap is here, and what a busy summer it was! This year we had 3350 visits from people all around the world—that's over 200 more than last year—with signatures in our guest book showing travellers from other Canadian provinces, as well as the United States and Europe. Almost 500 of those visits were for our two toddler groups: Romp & Read, which happens every Tuesday morning at 10am and is in partnership with the Metis Nation of Ontario, and Come Drum With Me, which is facilitated by the Algonquin Inòdewiziwin EarlyON Child and Family Centre and held in the library on Thursdays at 10am.

We kicked off the season with the return of our popular Summer Reading Challenge. Last year, we challenged the kids to read as many books as they could, and they rose to the occasion with over 1000 books read between them. This year, we tried something different: in order to get a ballot for our draw, kids would have to complete a Bingo on the card we gave them. Each square represented its own challenge, like reading a book that teaches them a new skill, or a book by an author they've never read before. This resulted in less ballots, but more thinking outside the box and branching out to other genres and book formats.

We also ran several Geography scavenger hunts all summer long, encouraging kids to answer questions using our giant World Map and Map of Canada in exchange for prizes. Questions ranged from "What's a country that's taller than it is wide?" to identifying continents and rivers, as well as Provinces and Capital cities in Canada. We had easier questions for kids who haven't begun working with maps yet in school, like identifying the colour of Canada or the name of an ocean. As the summer went on, kids gained a better understanding of navigating maps to answer the questions we provided, and took advantage of teamwork whenever they found a question was a little more difficult.

This summer we also hosted a book launch with the White Pine Writers Inc., for their book AMETHYST: Facts, Myths, & Legends. Their book was published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of declaring the amethyst as Ontario's official gemstone, as well as to promote this year as the 60th year of Bancroft's Rockhound Gemboree. Thanks to Hastings County, the library now offers a Rockhounding Kit that can be signed out with your library card! This is the latest addition to our library of things, following our Nature Discovery Backpacks courtesy of Watersheds Canada, and our Instrument Lending Library, courtesy of numerous generous donors in the community.

You may have also seen us doing a little community outreach at the Maynooth Pride event, where we did a community art and postcard activity, or at the Kids' Fishing Derby & Community Gathering in Lake St. Peter Provincial Park, where we partnered with the Lake St. Peter Property Owners Association and Watersheds Canada to put on a night sky activity.

Waiting for snacks at the rink shack!

To close off the summer, we partnered with the municipality to host a back to school Kids Dance Party at the Maynooth Skating Rink. Thanks to DJ Sean and his young assistant Levi, we were able to keep the tunes going while kids lined up at the rink shack for free snacks, drew chalk art, and did other fun activities to pass the time. We also had a variety of school supplies as giveaways, including funny pens, pencil cases, notebooks, backpacks, calculators, and stickers.

With Fall on the horizon, we are looking forward to the return of both our kids and adult book clubs, as well as our upcoming Halloween Costume Exchange. You can stay up to date with the latest programs and events happening at the library by following us on Facebook or visiting our website.