When the county froze the Richmond County Library system’s funds in March, the library staff worried their long-running summer reading program would suffer.

But when word got out that funding was short, the community stepped up making this summer’s program the most successful in years.

“We had 1,617 children this year and more than 6,000 books circulated throughout the five-week program,” said Deborah Knight, outreach coordinator for the Leath Memorial Library. The program, which ended Aug. 5, was held at the Hamlet, Ellerbe and Rockingham libraries for five-weeks during the summer. Each week there were different performers, storytellers and activities for children to participate in.

“Without the community we wouldn’t have had these programs,” Knight said.

The von Drehle Corporation, other local businesses and individuals made donations to the library to help the program bring in two National Storytellers, two magicians and the “Raptor Man” from the Carolina Raptor Center in Raleigh for the program. Local resident Chad Osborne, who brought in bongo drums for children to play, provided his time to the program at no cost to the library.

Every child who participated this summer also received a backpack, courtesy of Kerry Melvin and the Farm Bureau, while Biscuitville, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Captain D’s, Dairy Queen, Andy’s and Arby’s provided coupons for every child who checked out a book throughout the summer. At the end of the program, they also all went home with their very own book.

Bobby’s Furniture in Hamlet donated one bean bag that was given through a random drawing to one lucky reader.

“Every time a child checked out a book they got a prize,” Knight said. “And that’s probably why we had so many kids. They weren’t big prizes, but kids need a little something to entice them to read and they needed to learn the library is a fun place to be, not some starchy old library.”

Knight said the number of children was likely larger this summer because families weren’t going on vacation.

The Ellerbe library, which usually has about 12 children participate each summer, had so many children attend their classes this year the Rankin Museum stepped in and offered its conference room for the summer reading program.

Knight said it’s important for the community to be involved in these types of programs, and it’s equally important to let them know the good their support did.

“Good things are happening during these tough economic times,” Knight said. “And here, it’s because of the community. We get paid to do these things, but without the community, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we did this summer.”