Washington library holds alley party

WASHINGTON — Organizers said they were pleased with the turnout Sunday afternoon for an outdoor party celebrating Washington patrons’ success in this year’s summer reading challenge.

Library Director Cary Ann Siegfried said she saw a steady stream of people coming through, eating snow cones and cotton candy, playing with bubbles, and working on arts and crafts during the celebration, held in the building’s mural-filled alleyway.

“(There are) a lot of people who participated in summer reading, and that’s who this was for,” she said. “We challenged the community at the beginning of the summer with the goal of, we wanted to make 4,000 reading activities in Beanstack, and they made over 4,000.”

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Siegfried said the library hoped to repeat the event as a Summer Reading Challenge incentive in years to come. She said it was both a good way to keep the library on peoples’ minds outside of summer break, and to enjoy the collection of artwork lining walls behind the building.

“It’s a great opportunity,” she said. “Unless you’re returning books in the book drop, you don’t get to see this great mural, and we’ve had a lot of people comment, ‘Oh, I’ve never seen this back here, this is so great.”

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