PICKFORD COMMUNITY LIBRARY RANKED NUMBER ONE ORGANIZATION IN MICHIGAN, NUMBER TWO LIBRARY IN NATION 2019 SCHOLASTIC SUMMER READING CHALLENGE Pickford, MI -- The Pickford Community Library has reason to celebrate! Our local readers made it the Number One organization in the state of Michigan among schools, libraries, and civic organizations, and the Number Two Library in the United States in the 2019 <http://www.scholastic.com/summer> Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. Most importantly, the efforts of all readers worldwide led to the donation of 600,000 books to children in need. The Pickford Community Library coordinated and administrated the challenge for Pickford Public Schools, area homeschoolers, and participants from other Eastern Upper Peninsula schools. From May 6 to September 6, 179 area students read 381,097 minutes. In addition, the local community provided outstanding support for the library’s “piggyback rewards program” in which students earned in-house prizes all summer long. The Pickford Community Library will be featured in 2020 Scholastic Book of World Records for this nationwide honor and has received a commemorative plaque and a celebration kit to recognize student reading achievements. Students from all 50 states, two U.S. territories, and Washington, D.C., read 109,334,297 million minutes in the 2019 Challenge, a free, online summer reading program which aims to help students return to school reading-ready. It's designed to help kids turn the “summer slide” -- the learning loss which can occur over the summer months -- into a “summer leap” by discovering the power and joy of reading for fun. The complete list of Top Libraries, Top Community Partners, and “Best in State” schools is available at <https://www.scholastic.com/summer/home/> https://www.scholastic.com/summer/home/. For more information, contact Ann Marie Smith, Pickford Community Library Manager, at 906-647-1288 or <mailto:amsmith@uproc.lib.mi.us> amsmith@uproc.lib.mi.us.