08/02/2026
What a fun summer we had, nourishing bodies and building home libraries through Lunch at the Library (with thanks to the California Library Association and Sierra Sands Unified School District) and enriching minds through our wide variety of programs offered this summer. From early literacy storytimes to STEM and LEGO Challenges, arts and crafts to garden related topics, and all of our visitors during Lunch at the Library and every week, we enjoyed meeting new people and learning from them! We had AMAZING summer staff and volunteers too ❤
We had a visitor EVERY DAY during Lunch at the Library! We appreciate everyone who took time out of their day to chat with Lunch attendees and especially our wonderful community members for our Leaders are Readers series! This summer, we listened to fun stories read by City Councilmember Solomon Rajaratnam, Chief of Police Mario Ysit, Sarah Dastrup from Sierra Sands Unified School District, Rebecca Goldstein from the Ridgecrest Chamber of Commerce, Amanda Erwin from the Women's Center, Princesses from Sierra Academy of Dance, Navy Federal Credit Union representatives, United Way Central Eastern California representatives, and Kern County Fire Station 84 representatives.
We also enjoyed very special guest visitors: the Magic of Josiah, juggler David Cousin, Snakes on Sam, High Desert Falconry, Hula from the Heart, Omnipresent Puppet Theater, Golden Meadow Goats, Kailan Carr, Magic Napoleon, and Wunderland Kitchen who brought exciting and enriching experiences to our community. We recently showcased our amazingly wonderful sponsors who sponsored some of these special guests, along with Lunch at the Library/California State Library.
We would like to extend our appreciation to the community as well, because all of you SHOWED UP during the Summer Reading Challenge (less often in July 😂 but we understand that it was a HOT July)! You ate lunch, you built your home library (we gave out just over 1,300 books during Lunch at the Library!), you played, you learned, you listened and read, you participated in the Summer Reading Challenge, you collected Reading Dragon cards (which is still going), you did the regular and World War II themed scavenger hunts, you answered our question of the month, you planted seeds every week for Little Seedlings, you explored our light table, you chose seeds, you picked up a FIFA World Cup sticker book, you attended programs, you laughed, you touched REPTILES and baby goats, you created, you tasted, and you experienced. THANK YOU!!!
We will continue offering programs for all ages even after the summer, so we hope that you'll consider continuing to check out what we have to offer after the summer, especially since we will be adding in more adult programs (but we understand that school and homework and sports/extracurricular activities make it challenging).
