As the summer vacation months get underway, so too has the summer reading club at the Merritt Library.

July 2 marked the opening party for the 2013 summer reading club titled “Up, Up and Away.” Classes are being held all summer for three age groups: three to five, six to nine and 10 to 12.

Registration is free and all children are welcome to attend the classes and activities which will be held Tuesdays through Fridays, Merritt Library manager Deborha Merrick said. She said parents should call the library to find out what times to bring their children to the reading club.

Organizer Katarina Desimone said the club is designed to give kids a way to maintain or improve their reading levels during the summer by reading during their absence from school.

“A lot of times, kids leave school and they go into ‘summer mode,’ and they don’t read and they actually lose up to five months of what they’ve already learnt,” Desimone said.

She said it’s a fun way the library helps kids keep on track with their reading skills.

“We read in the class. We encourage kids to take out books. We get them to read as many books as possible,” Desimone said, adding the club is also a great way for the kids to make friends.

The reading club will also offer plenty of other activities for its participants.

“We’re doing human foosball, human snakes and ladders, human battleship and we’re having a glow in the dark Star Wars war sometime in the summer,” she said.

Library offering up $1,000

The Friends of the Merritt Library group is offering people the chance to win a $1,000 in the draw “It Pays to Use Your Library.”

The contest requires entrants to describe in no more than 100 words or five lines of text a positive experience at the library. Multiple entries are allowed, but each one must describe a different experience. Entries must be emailed in to [email protected] by Nov. 26, as the purpose of the contest is to get people who access the library to use their computers. The library offers free computer instruction as well.

A second prize of $100 will be awarded to the writer of the best entry. Contact the Merritt Library at (250) 378-4737 for more information.