Library staff expect the Summer Reading Program to help kids with their reading. They didn’t expect to learn it had helped a teen with her driving!
Kari Haynes has made the news locally, regionally and nationally because she and her mom drove to all 32 locations of Great River Regional Library this summer. Learner driver Kari was registered for the teen SRP through her local Albany Public Library. The program required Kari and other participants to keep track of their reading on coupons and turn in those coupons for prize drawings. An optional activity was to create a passport and get it stamped on visits to nearby branches. Kari took it to the extreme, driving more than 940 miles from library to library until her passport was filled with stamps.
The driving gave her experience on different kinds of roads, and the experience gave her insight into different kinds of libraries, from small, one room branches to the 118,000 sq. ft. library in St. Cloud. Her favorite was the Delano Public Library, a converted bank with its original vault now serving as a teen room.
Kari’s story was first reported in the Albany Enterprise, then in the St. Cloud Times, and then American Libraries Direct.