Library’s Summer Reading Program concludes with Dough Show

By PAMELA GRANT
Cove Leader-Press 

All good things must come to an end, and that includes the Copperas Cove Public Library’s Summer Reading Program.
As has become tradition, the Summer Reading Program ended with a pizza party reward for those who completed their reading goals. Domino’s employees tossed and spun dough balls before tossing them to the kids in the audience. 
“I think it helps the kids not only by giving them a reward for reading, but also something to look forward to,” said Ingrid Kiefer, Public Relations for Domino’s, who smiled as she watched the Domino’s employees tossing the dough. “I don’t know who has more fun, them or the kids.”
After the show, tables were set up and the kids were each given their own dough ball to play with before pizza was served.
“It was nice,” said Amber Grant about the pizza party reward. Grant brought her children Autumn (8) and Amelia Grant (5). “We were just expecting them to come in and eat pizza. We weren’t expecting all this. We weren’t expecting them to be able to play with it and have fun.”
Grant said that her children constantly read, so meeting their goals was easy for them. She said that having the dough show was a good end to the program.
“I never did this before,” said Autumn Grant as she formed her dough ball. “I’m going to make an olive pizza because olives are my favorite.”
Many of the children embraced the chance to be creative with their dough creations. One child made a turtle out of their dough while another crafted a volcano of dough.
“It was funny to watch them play catch with the dough,” said Ashley Deavila who brought her children Olivia Deavila (3), Owen Deavila (5), and Ryleigh Stiles (8) to the show.
Deavila said that meeting the reading goal was easy for her daughter, Ryleigh Stiles, but proved more of a challenge for her son, Owen Deavila. However, she said that her son did end up enjoying it.
Deavila added that she appreciates the fact that the library offers the Summer Reading Program for free to the public. She said that it’s especially good for families like hers with multiple children. She liked the fact that the shows were educational as well as fun. Their family attended most of the Summer Reading Program shows.
Her daughter Ryleigh Stiles said that she liked watching the dough show and getting to play with her dough ball. Stiles said that her favorite Summer Reading Program show was the dinosaur show.
Library Director Kevin Marsh called this year’s reading program a success. He said that they were initially concerned that numbers would be down due to construction and lack of bathrooms, but event participation was still very high this year and some of the teen programs were ‘exceptionally well attended’. Marsh said that some of the new performers this year were very well received, and he’s gotten a lot of positive feedback. For example, he noted that the magician they used this year was great and they’ve already scheduled him to return next year.
“It was a really successful year…We’ve been really pleased with the number of participants we’ve had and the amount of reading that they’re doing…I just think that we had the best show in town every week this summer,” said Marsh. “The great thing about summer reading is that we get kids to imagine something that they haven’t seen before…We have the ability to get them to think about and learn something that they haven’t been to or seen and it really expands their horizons.”