This blog post was written by Eti, Janet, and Krista, who run our Teen and Studio volunteer programs.
Have you visited The Studio or our Summer Reading Club booth in the Youth Services department this summer?
Then you’ve likely connected with the fantastic volunteers who make our summer reading and learning experiences possible.
As reading ambassadors, our 46 teen volunteers staffed our Youth Services Summer Reading Club booth, checking in children and tweens throughout the summer, celebrating their accomplishments, and helping them get their prize books. With over 350 booth shifts for teens to staff, our teens demonstrated their commitment to service, passion for reading, and encouragement for lifelong learning.
Visiting our reading booth has become a generational milestone. In fact, many of our volunteers have shared how they remember checking in at the booth as children – and now they get to make these positive memories for a new generation.
Teens have also helped out at popular and ambitious summer programs like our Summer Reading Club Kick-off Party, Stuffed Animal Camp Out, Toddler Explorers, an author visit with Dahlia Richards, Wings of Fire Club, and more! Volunteers also helped staff with projects, such as preparing program supplies, adding the Friends of the Wilmette Public Library sticker to our prize books, checking for damaged books, and many other tasks they kindly agree to help with.
We were also supported by two adult volunteers, longtime Summer Reading Club Assistant Susan Zonia and the Friends of the Wilmette Public Library President Cecilia Clark, who helped manage the data entry for our Summer Reading Club logs and staff the booth during busy times. Their help was invaluable!
The Studio, the library’s maker space, bustles in the summer. Teen volunteers helped patrons with their projects, especially the popular button makers, freeing up staff to help patrons with complex questions. Volunteers often forged connections with younger kids, who were excited to learn from teens. Studio volunteers also had the opportunity to explore their own interests in art and technology using The Studio’s equipment. Volunteering in The Studio is a great way for teens to sharpen their work skills, build responsibility, exercise their own creativity, and strengthen community connections.
Nine teens volunteered in The Studio this summer. As of mid-July, they had filled 27 two-hour shifts. They were obligated to do three shifts per person; at the halfway point in the summer, they had already fulfilled their requirements. Many of them went above and beyond and came back for more shifts! They were very committed to The Studio, and we appreciate them deeply!
Our volunteers help people feel celebrated, empowered, and capable of taking on new challenges and reading goals. We wouldn’t have such a successful summer reading program without them!
You can count the incredible statistics about our summer volunteers and the impact they have made on our community. But the amount of library joy they inspired by celebrating kids’ reading lives and helping patrons make their project dreams come true? That’s priceless.