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This City Reads group puts summer event under its umbrella, into wintertime schedule
By Bill Lilley
Beacon Journal
Published on Friday, Feb 08, 2008
This is really the tale of two stories.
When Lock 3 Park, the Civic Theatre and E.J. Thomas Hall decided over the summer to no longer host the Family Reading Festival, it seemed the last chapter had been written for the event that intertwined reading and cultural events.
Flip the page to Carrie Burrier, the This City Reads coordinator, who heard from many folks who were disappointed that the summer reading event was over after just two years.
Burrier and the This City Reads group worked to resurrect the Family Reading Festival by incorporating it into the wintertime effort to encourage citywide reading.
Burrier calls the effort to combine the two ''an umbrella of literacy.''
''It was such a logical fit for us to pick up the Family Reading Festival and tie it in with the fifth annual Day of Reading,'' said Burrier, Youth Services coordinator for the Akron-Summit County Public Library. ''It gives us the opportunity to make what was a one-day event into a nearly weeklong celebration of literacy.
The Family Reading Festival will kick off at 10 a.m. Saturday when family singer/songwriter Jim Gill performs in the auditorium of the Main Library at 60 S. High St. in Akron.
Celebrity readers such as Clifford the Big Red Dog of PBS fame, Akron Aeros mascot Orbit, Summit County Domestic Relations Judge Carol Dezso, Summit County Executive Russell Pry and Clerk of Courts Dan Horrigan will be featured in the Family Story Time.
The Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet will perform excerpts from Peter Pan and the New World Performance Lab, a local avant garde theater group, will perform skits from Alice in Wonderland.
''These will be wonderful performances and we're really looking forward to sharing them with people,'' Burrier said. ''And what makes it even better is that all of the events are free and open to the public — you don't need a ticket.''
There also will be a Step Back in Time presentation in which game board designer Robert Merchant will have a hands-on exhibit featuring his baseball-oriented games and a book giveaway sponsored by First Book Greater Akron and the Akron Bar Association at the Main Library.
There will be a Reach Out and Read book drive at Akron Children's Hospital in which gently used books can be brought in and the donor will receive a gift.
The festival continues Monday and Tuesday with authors Jaime Adoff, son of well-known children's book author Virginia Hamilton, and Lynda Durrant of Bath Township, along with illustrator Will Hillenbrand, speaking to students at six different school districts in Summit County.
The fifth annual Day of Reading will be on Wednesday.
Burrier has a lofty goal for this year's Day of Reading — 100,000 people reporting that they read for 30 minutes or longer on Wednesday. It can be reading a book, newspaper, magazine or even a Web site. The reading can be done individually or in a group.
''This is a great day in Summit County, not just Akron, because we will have so many people reading,'' Burrier said. ''This is a way people in the community show that we value reading and support the kids.
''We're hoping to get 100,000 people reporting in on Wednesday. We had 95,000 in 2006 and then last year, despite a blizzard going on, we had nearly 86,000.''
Children and adults can report in Wednesday either online at htpp://www.thiscityreads.org or by calling the Main Library at 330-643-9099 or 330-643-9185.noweb
Bill Lilley can be reached at 330-996-3811 or blilley@thebeaconjournal.com.
This is really the tale of two stories.
Get the full article here.
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