Earlier this week, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft announced the Cape Girardeau Public Library will be one of 89 libraries receiving a grant to boost its summer reading program. The Summer Reading Club will use the $14,990 grant to fine tune the nine-week program in the coming months. Cape Girardeau Public Library director Betty Martin said they hope to hire additional staff to help with several programs they offer.
“We’re publishing a summer program guide we’ve been doing for the past few years," Martin said. "Also we hire a special art teacher and a junior high teacher who will work with our teens and do our teen programming in the summer."
Funded by the Library Services and Technology Act, the grants are given through the secretary of state’s Summer Library Program to encourage communities and especially children to visit their local libraries, when they’re not in school. Ashcroft said programs like this improve children’s vocabulary skills, resulting in students’ success in the classroom.