LAURINBURG — With the Christmas break right around the corner, the Scotland County Memorial Library is gearing up to help keep children reading during the time off school.

The library is starting its first Winter Reading Challenge for all school-aged children beginning on Dec. 2 after returning from the Thanksgiving break.

“After our Summer Reading Challenge, I had many parents and kids asking if we do any other reading challenges,” said Library Program Coordinator Katelin Gandee. “So I created the Winter Reading Challenge which is a more condensed reading challenge than Summer Reading. The kids have a goal of reading 500 minutes from when they sign up until Jan. 31. Once they finish the challenge they can bring their log into the library and get a prize.”

Sign-ups will end on Jan. 10, according to Gandee and students have until Feb. 7 to stop into the library and collect prizes which include items such as a free game of bowling, paint-your-own ceramics, and more.

The library is also currently in its sixth year of having an Angel Tree in the library. The Angel Tree is a partnership with Church Community Services of Scotland County with several tags this year partnering with the Scotland County Department on Social Services.

The tree has multiple tags on it with gender, age, and item requested for the recipients who are all local residents.

All those who want to help have to do is come into the library and pick a tag. Then the next steps are going to purchase an item, wrap it then bring it back to the library by Dec. 13.

Right before the Christmas holiday, the library will be hosting a visit from Santa Claus. On Dec. 23 from 10 a.m. to noon Santa will be in the library ready for photos and to hear children’s last-minute Christmas wishes.

“We hope to have a backdrop and some props for photos,” Gandee said. “We, however, will not be providing the photos so bring your own camera and phone for photos. Staff will be willing to take a family photo for you on your own devices.”

Other library programs

Besides the Winter Reading Challenge, Gandee has been working to add more programs to the library come 2025.

“We’ve had a lot of success and great turnouts with so many of our programs,” Gandee said. “While I do have some programs in the works for 2025 catering towards kids 12 and under, I want to add some more programming for teens. So I’m asking that any teens interested in any programs to fill out an online survey, which is 100% anonymous. It can be anything they might be interested in from classes to having a video game night or a book club. The sky is really the limit as I’m just trying to gauge what they want to see at the library.”

Gandee added that programs like the weekly Wednesday Toddler Story Time and monthly Lego Club have gained a lot of traction she would love to see more people in attendance at some of the other programs.

“I would love to see more people joining our monthly Book Club meetings,” Gandee said. “We have a handful of regular attendees to the Book Club and some great discussions so we’re hoping to grow to more people in the New Year. There are six books each month to choose from and you only have to read one of them. The idea is to come in and hear from other readers and maybe pick up a book they otherwise wouldn’t have read based on the discussion.”

Gandee added the library gets several copies of each book with regular print, large print, and audiobook options with all of them remaining behind the circulation desk so those interested don’t have to look for them. The book club meets on the third Wednesday of every month from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Other library programs currently going on include Toddler Story Time every Tuesday from 10 to 10:30 a.m., Lego Club from 4 to 5 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month, Craft Night from 4 to 5 p.m. on the last Wednesday of the month except for December, and Chat and Craft on the second and fourth Thursday of each month.

“We’ve been having a great group come to every Chat and Craft,” Gandee said. “So much so that come January we will be changing the time from 10:30 a.m. to noon to 10 a.m. to noon after it was requested the time be extended some. It’s been a great group with everyone making something different and helping inspire each other with crafts, and the chats are always great.”

The library also has two other ongoing programs, Reader the Rock Snake and the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Program. Reader the Rock Snake is outside the library’s main doors and encourages parents and children alike to paint a rock and bring it to add to Reader to help him grow.

“We actually had a patron come up with a hashtag for us which is #smlrocks,” Gandee said. “She’s left several around in the community in hopes that the hashtag will be used more and encourage people back to the library and add more rocks to Reader. We also have pre-primed rocks at the front desk for people to take home and paint then bring back to the library to add to Reader if they don’t want to hunt down any rocks to paint.”

For the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Program, Gandee said just over 30 children are currently signed up. With each 100 books read the children’s names get moved across the board and they get a photo with a frame declaring how many books they’ve read.

“Any child that has not yet entered kindergarten can be signed up for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Program,” Gandee said. “It sounds like a lot of books but if you read three books a day that’s 1,095 books in a year, plus it still counts as three different books if you read the same book three times in a day. I’m hopeful more with be coming in to turn in their logs because, at the end of January, we’re holding our first raffle which is a build-your-own stuffed animal. For each 100 books they’ve read, they get an entry into the raffle so I’m excited to see some more kids hitting 100, 200, and 300 books.”