The 17th annual Summer Reading Carnival at the Rangely Regional Library gave readers an opportunity to get outside for some fun and frolic, including an “octopus toss.” This year 231 readers signed up for the program. JESSE MCCANN PhotoS
RANGELY | The Summer Reading Program at Rangely Regional Library has come and gone. We had great participation again this year. There were 231 readers who signed up to read a whole bunch of books (so many that we haven’t had a chance to tally them up yet)! We had a total of 11 different winners of the candy guess competition held each week. The winners were a mix of adults and kiddos. We even had a tie one week for the bubblegum!
The grand finale was our Summer Reading Carnival. This year marked the 17th one! A magic show was added for the first time. We also had water games as well as the ever-popular milk bottle toss. There were pony rides, face painting, snow cones, balloon animals, a nail booth and as if that wasn’t enough, cotton candy to top it all off!
An event like this does not happen without a lot of help and boy are we lucky in that department! The Town of Rangely is gracious enough to let us use their courtyard and even lend a hand to help fill the pools for the water games, cone off the area for the pony rides, haul ice for the snow cones and clean up after the ponies before we have a chance to get to it. We have the best neighbors! So, thank you Lisa Piering, Jeff LeBleu, Kelli Neiberger, Tim Schiller, Heath GeBauer and Brody Low.
Connie Skelton has been spinning out cotton candy for the library kids since the very first carnival. She is nice enough to find a sub on years that she is out of town. This year the Chamber ladies stepped up. So, a big thanks to C. J. Robie and Emma Baker for helping to sugar up all the kiddos-it is a tough job but somebody’s gotta do it, right? They did have some pretty stiff competition from the snow cone ladies. Diane Sizemore has been making snow cones for us for so many years that she has it down pat!
Who could forget the ponies? A humungous thank you to 4-H Horse Club leader Justyne Peters for rounding up her girls to bring their ponies. They are certainly a highlight of the event. We cannot forget two special Daddies who took time away from work on a Tuesday morning to help get ponies and girls to and from the carnival as well as help give rides-Dylan Smuts and Ricky Munoz! Thank you for your time and effort and this was not the first time that you have done that! Thanks to DawnLynn Smuts and Paola and Elli Munoz for bringing their horses and to Jasmine Preciado, Lillie and Paisley Potter and Kassidy and Kaisley Sandford for helping give rides.
Face painting is another popular attraction at the carnival. Thankfully we had Kaelyn and Hannah Geer, Macy Morgan and Mallorie Miller to help out with that. Special thanks to the Geer girls for filling in last minute! Sandra and Samantha Guzman helped out with the water games as well as set up and tear down. Aspen Miller, Kai Skelton, Savannah Skelton, Rylee, Bailey and Zoe Robie all helped out by painting nails or bagging cotton candy. There was also a special group of kiddos who may have outgrown the carnival but choose to help now, those being-Kanden Lebleu, Kandra Culpepper, Addy Hejl, Colton Wilczek, Kameron Harvey, Liam Geer and Cooper Fielder. We also really appreciate Matthew Morgan who helped with lots of things that day — way too many to list! Special thanks to the Carter family for help setting up and tearing down as well as working booths-Chuck, Megan, Nate, Eva, Maddy and Lily, you are an awesome addition to our community and specifically the Library!
A lot goes on behind the scenes to prepare for this event months in advance. A big thanks to the Library staff for doing this in addition to their regular duties and for doing it so well! This year that would include Halie Elam, Rita Reich and Megan Carter. Also, a big thanks to the Library Board for continuing to support this event; Vicki Douglas, Mike Morgan, Kelly Christian, Sharon Ross and Courtney Powell. A big final thanks to Jesse McCann for taking pictures for us — you capture things that we would otherwise never see!
