As is true in most years, we were especially proud of the achievements of our Summer and Winter Reading Clubs, which include thousands of area students. "Be Creative @ Your Library" was the theme for last year's Summer Reading Club and was supported by a number of special programs designed to inspire more students to read. These included everything from a drumming workshop, which taught the importance of drumming as a form of communication in Africa, to the Big Book Project, which challenged the children at each branch to create their own life-sized book displays. More than 4,600 students participated in the Summer Reading Club.
Our Winter Reading Clubs experienced similar success, with more Cleveland-area schools participating in 2009 than in 2008. Artemus Ward School was recognized, for the third straight year, for its ability to motivate students to read more. Students at the school read more than 30,000 titles during the 2009 winter reading season, earning them the No. 1 spot in the competition.
We again hosted our Teen Summit in October as part of Teen Read Week. Keynote speaker Tony Medina hosted writing workshops, while a number of local youth entrepreneurs participated in the Beat the Odds session by demonstrating how they had successfully employed their skills at a young age.
