Parents and children gathered in Three Lakes Tuesday…to mark fifty years of reading stories out loud at the library.
Demmer Library in Three Lakes celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Story Hour yesterday.
In 1964, there was no kindergarten program in the public schools. Barbara Holtz and Virginia Javenkoski started Story Hour help teach young children the social skills they’d need for school. Mrs. Holtz recalls the Three Lakes’ town board’s response to starting a Story Hour:
“They said yes, they were happy we were doing it, and they would give us $5 to start it with. We bought mats so the children would not have to sit on the bare floor.”
Story hour stirred up the parental support to start kindergarten three years later, says Holtz, and when the Demmer library was built in 1971,
The program was honored with the Exemplary Reading Program Award from the International Reading Association in 1991.
Now led by Charlotte Horant, story hour meets weekly in both Three Lakes and Sugar Camp.