ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The Orangeburg County Library is keeping children's love of reading alive this summer.
“Children have a lot of influences in their life and I think one of the key influences that the library is really capable of is teaching children how to love to read," said Orangeburg County library director Anna Zacherl.
Zacherl says Orangeburg County youth having access to this six-week long program is essential to their learning.
“We serve a predominantly lower income population and studies have also shown that a lot of the children in our community aren’t getting enough experience during the summer because of lack of resources, lack of opportunities, lack of funding, but what they do in the summer is really important," she said.
Library staff say during this time, youth who stop reading could fall behind on two months of learning.
"We have what’s called the summer slide and unfortunately when you head back into school you’re actually at a disadvantage because you haven’t been keeping up with reading, you haven’t been using your mind alot over the summer," said youth services coordinator Robin Kurz.
The program is open for children, teens, and adults. At the end of the program, children under 18 will get invited to a free book fair where they can get two books of their choice.
“It’s very disheartening when you have kids who go to the book fair excited about it, but they don’t have the money to buy anything and so we wanted to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to get free books and free prizes, to get excited about a book fair, to not have to worry about whether or not they could afford it," said Kurz.
Registration for the program begins Saturday.
For more information about the Orangeburg County Library, visit their Facebook.