The Calgary Public Library is encouraging people of all ages to read every day until the end of August as part of the Ultimate Summer Challenge. The annual initiative, which is one of the library’s largest and most impactful, draws thousands of participants across the city. Officials say the free reading challenge serves as a way build healthy reading habits for individuals and families. “It’s a great way to prepare for back to school -- getting back into that habit of reading every day,” said Brin Bugo, Crowfoot Library manager. “And it doesn’t matter if you’re reading for five minutes or five hours, every bit of reading counts.” Bugo is an avid reader and says she’s never surprised how many books people are logging during the challenge. “We’re really proud when we see some of these power users coming in and cleaning out our shelves,” she said. “It’s always wonderful to see kids and families reading together – and seeing kids that are so excited for their books that they start reading them as they walk out the door, that’s part of why I do what I do.” There are prizes awarded throughout the program, but Bugo says the benefits of daily reading for children outweigh any award. “Reading with children, right from the day that they’re born, is one of the best things that you can do as a parent to set them up for success when they enter school,” she said. There are some great gifts up for grabs for everyone who registers. Each age group will have their own set of unique prizes, including Calgary Zoo memberships, game prize packs, a ukelele and music lessons from Long & McQuade, iPads, AirPod and a PS5 with disc drive and pack. Pam Galler says her children are keen to read, and are regulars at the Crowfoot Library. The family has taken part in the Ultimate Summer Challenge for the last ten years. Galler’s children are eleven, nine, seven, three – and she has a newborn. “It’s always a competition in a family of five children; thy definitely like to have a healthy competition amongst each other,” Galler said. “But at the same time, they support each other a lot, and they share books amongst each other and introduce different genres to each other, which is nice.” Galler says the kids read multiple books daily and have each logged hundreds for the challenge. “Our house is overflowing with books quite literally,” she said. ”They come here and it’s like trick-or-treating. They just go around, pick books, fill up their bags, leave; it’s exciting.” The Ultimate Summer Challenge runs until the end of August.
