Minister Praises Youth Library Events

MR. SPEAKER, I rise this morning to inform members of this Honourable House and the people of Bermuda about the valuable literacy based events that have been taking place at the Youth Library on Church Street.

Mr. Speaker, the purpose of Library programs is to promote the love of reading to children, both educational and recreational, and to impress upon parents the importance of reading to their children every day and from an early age.

The Youth Library staff continues to strive to offer literacy based activities for all children from birth to eighteen years of age.

Mr. Speaker, in the last three months the library has offered 73 programs for our young people with 1,822 people attending.

In October they held “Read for the Record” as well as a Haunted Library programs. The Read for the Record program encourages preschools and nurseries all around the world to read the same book to children in order to break the world record.

The Youth Library coordinated the event and had seven preschools and a total of 231 students participate as well as hosting a reading session at the library hosted by Minister Michael Weeks. Bermuda’s participation was counted for the world record.

For the “haunted library program”, there were over 80 people that came out to see the transformed library haunted by storybook characters.

The children were treated to a haunted library story written by staff member, Clintel Jones, before they headed in through the spooky library maze. This was such a success that it will become an annual event.

Mr. Speaker, also in November, the library held a Family Story Night to promote family literacy. Twenty-seven people came with their picnic blankets and dinner for an evening of stories, singing, poetry and magic.

It gave parents the opportunity to sit together as a family and enjoy dinner and to hear wonderful stories being read to them. In this way parents were exposed to some of the great books available at the library.

Mr. Speaker, the library was busy in December. They held a Library Sleepover run by the Teen Advisory Board, Winter Crafts during the Christmas school break and a Kwanzaa celebration.

Mr. Speaker, the Sleepover at the Library offered an evening of dinner, games, stories and the opportunity for the children to work as teams. The purpose of the event was to expose the 32 children to the services and materials that are available at the library through a fun and educational program.

Mr. Speaker, during the school year the Library runs a Teen Advisory Board which is made up of approximately 10-12 teenagers from the Middle and High Schools.

The aim of the Board is to promote literacy to teens and the teens to assist the library with programs for young people through community service.

Mr. Speaker, the Youth Library offered these programs in additional to their regular weekly programs that consist of a Book Babies reading program, Tiny Tunes music program, Saturday Story times, Boys’ Club, Girls’ Club, Chess Club and monthly movie days.

They have seen a steady increase in usage in attendance of these programs year over year.

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister responsible for the Bermuda National Library, I want to once again thank the library staff for their dedication to the people of Bermuda.

I particularly want to commend the Youth Library staff on their ability to continuously and consistently develop programs to entertain, educate and foster a love of reading and learning in our children.

Thank You, Mr. Speaker

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