Victor Farmington Library hosts readathon

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The Readathon Bookworm joins the festivities. (Photo: Victor Farmington Library)

The Victor Farmington Library held its first readathon Thursday. Its goal: to spread a love for reading and for community members to view the library as a resource.

The library staff was inspired by the Tompkins County Public Library Foundation Readathon that has been running for 12 years. That event has had success in growing the library’s community and attracting donations, which is what the Victor Farmington Library hopes to achieve. 

“Seeing people from other communities would be great as the library is free and a great resource for people,” says Jessica Pritchard, development manager at the Victor Farmington Library

Pritchard, with help from library staff, began by reaching out to supporters and partners to organize the event. Two librarians and a teacher from the Victor School District signed up as readers as did radio jockeys Kristie Credit (Warm 101.2) and Nik Rivers (94.1 The Zone). The audience heard both children’s books and adult books from several guest readers.

“How quickly local businesses said yes was really exciting,” Pritchard says.

She hopes this event will inspire children to read more.

“Absolutely hoping to get kids involved in reading. Seeing people from their community or someone they admire participate in this will hopefully boost summer reading especially with the community of the library increasing,” she says.

The event also honored a local Girl Scout Troop for a library project. The scouts identified two issues they cared about: low literacy rates and lack of interest in reading. They recorded trailers for books they loved, and are hoping to get others excited about, and recorded audiobooks.

On an average day, the library has around 400 visitors. Pritchard would like that number to increase in the future. 

Most of all, she would like the readathon to become an annual event.

“Everyone has something to learn and everyone has something to share,” says Pritchard.

Victoria Edwards is a student writer and a rising senior at Connecticut College. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to [email protected]

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