From Wernersville Public Library
On Wednesday, March 5, the Wernersville Public Library was recognized for outstanding merits in fundraising and programming at the 22nd annual Berks County Library System awards ceremony.
The Library’s Fall Fair won for its imaginative event. The Wernersville Public Library wanted to cultivate an event that would bring together the Board of Trustees, the Friends of the Library, and staff to create advocacy, fun, civic and social literacy, and information literacy for our community while fundraising for the library. Not only did the library meet the advocacy and financial goals, the library exceeded the expectation of community awareness and social literacy. There were endorsements from the Mayor of Wernersville, who was a judge for the pie baking contest, local politicians promoting the library on their pages while attending, and the Western Berks Fire Department donating their time with doing fire truck demonstrations. The Wernersville Public Library Teen Advisory Board helped boost teen events while successfully raising funds for teen materials and programs. The event was far-reaching as Channel 69 news came and covered the event, which helped with the mission for awareness. This event proved that the library fosters community and the community fosters the library.
Camp Pollywog run by local artist, Ron Schiding, won for stellar youth programming. This program was a weekly program during this past Summer Quest. Camp Pollywog went with the theme of Adventure Begins at Your Library. The objective of this program was for younger children to come to story time and have a camp-like experience at the library. The program is art literacy-based, and it is focused on children to participate as individuals and contribute to a group project. The first art project of the summer was a huge treehouse art piece that remains in the community room. Each participant was able to create branches, leaves, and assemble the treehouse as a group.
Wernersville Public Library Director Maria Gerasklis-Long stated, “The first week of March was certainly much to celebrate. After attending the awards ceremony, I … noticed that we received our PA Forward Gold Star status for this year. As you can see, the library excels in its abilities to incorporate the five literacies in all that we do for our community. By having these standards, it’s only proven to produce exceptional outcomes as noted by the awards we received.”
The library has been a Gold Star recipient since 2022.
PA Forward, which launched statewide in 2012, works through five key literacies – Basic, Information, Civic and Social, Health, and Financial – to assist individuals in enhancing their overall quality of life. To continue helping libraries use PA Forward to demonstrate all their libraries offer, in January 2017, the Association kicked off the Star Library program statewide. The Star Library recognition offers support to libraries who participate and integrate PA Forward’s literacies in their programming activities. Program topics can include information such as retirement planning (financial literacy), to more physically active programs, such as walking book club discussions (civic and social literacy, and health literacy).
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Source: bctv