Community Focus: Havre community was a hero for this program

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped with our summer reading program at the Havre-Hill County Library.

“Community Heroes” has been a great success. I appreciate everyone who has made this summer a success beginning with the U.S. Border Patrol for bringing the drug dog and helping with the carnival.

Thanks to Brian Simonson for being our military hero and Sheri Simonson for setting up an excellent obstacle course.

We gratefully appreciate Jessica Sheehy and her nurse, Shelbee Fritchman, for being local medical heroes and helping us build stethoscopes. Thanks to Reba Domire for being an educator and thanks to Search and Rescue for keeping our families safe especially during the fair.

A special thanks to Montana Highway Patrol for helping children through the Montana Hope Project and to Shawn Ostberg for being our cook at the carnival.

Thank you, Bill Chambers, for your love of story-telling.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who participated and helped with the carnival including, Mercy Flight, Havre Fire Department, Havre City Police, Hill County Sheriff's Department, Highway Patrol, Border Patrol, Hill County Health Department, HRDC, Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods, Havre Rental, Culligan, Stockman Bank, US Bank, Bear Paw Credit Union, Flynn Reality, Bear Paw Technology, Henny Penny’s, Library Board member Paula Miller, Juanita Hocket, Levi Houston, Doug Kallenberger, Loraine Verploegen, Charlie Gallus, Cera Roberts, Shawn Roberts, Mark Peterson, Jacob Good, and the entire Snyder family. We could not have done it without you. You are truly my heroes.

At last count we had 680 people attend the carnival (I think we missed a few). The library had 2,114 people participate in our summer programs. A total of 348 signed up for the reading program. 64 participants completed their goal and turned in their minutes. In all, 142,035 minutes were read which translates into 2,367 hours or 99 days.

The top readers for ages 0-3 were Erabella Collins, BoDantay Collins, and Margaret Garland. Winners in the 4-6 age group are Aiesha Garland, Olivia Christensen and Chase Overcast. Winners in the 7-9 age group are Sofia Snyder, Uriah Snyder and Isabella Valdez. Top readers for 10-12 are Josiah Boe, Isabella Snyder and Sabriel Combs. Winners for ages 13-17 are Olivia Snyder, Jeremiah Boe and Rowland Snyder. Adult top readers are Karrina Snyder, Bobbi Swinney, Melissa Cumings, and Brittany Giesking. People who have not picked up their prize may do so at the library.

The weekly drawing winners were Signe Riggin, William Boyle, Liliana Smith, Aiesha Garland who won the car donated by Havre Ford, Ethan Moore who won the train set donated by BNSF Railway, Liam Cumings who won the art set donated by FLC and Zoe Otto who won the mystery prize).

Thank you to Havre Ford, Frank Leeds Construction, Friends of the Library and BNSF for donating prizes to our weekly drawing. Thanks to Tilleman Motor for donating oil changes to our adult winners.

I cannot express the gratitude I feel toward the Havre community and all you do to support the library. Thank you everyone.

(Lori Roberts is the children’s librarian at Havre-Hill County Library.)