This year’s Summer Reading Program (SRP) at the Ashland Public Library was “very low key since feedback in May and early June indicated that families were burnt out from using the internet,” Lois McAuliffe, director of children’s services, said. “We wanted to have a stress-free and fun program.”

The program ran from mid-June until mid-August. Two hundred two kids, 25 teens, and 75 adults registered for the program.

The theme this year was ‘Imagine Your Story.’ McAuliffe said, “We created a fun, activity-based program, ‘Escape the Enchanted Forest,’ using Beanstack online software, but we didn’t require people to count their minutes [as they did in the past] if they didn’t want to. Since families weren’t able to come inside the library until early August, and then only for limited browsing, the SRP was done at home. We offered a printed version of the logging chart for anyone who didn’t want to go online, but we didn’t require them to turn in that log at the end of the program.”

“For programming we offered several make and take crafts, STEAM story times, and a toddler story and craft,” McAuliffe said. “We made up kits of the craft supplies, which families picked-up at our curbside pick-up, then they watched the pre-recorded videos for teens and adults with librarian Holly Friedman, young adult/reference librarian or for kids making the craft with me.”

Because the SRP committee decided to support a local business this season, they used funds left over from last year’s program to purchase ice cream treats at Murphy’s Eats & Treats for everyone who participated in this year’s program. Kids and teens who participated also earned a bundle of five books.

Co-chairs of the SRP were Claire Goss and Lois McAuliffe. Committee members were Holly Friedman, Ashley Place, Betsy Emberley, and Patricia Callahan.