Beating the heat wasn’t hard for the children enrolled in the summer reading program at Leath Memorial Library.

The theme of the summer reading program is “Make a Splash ... Read!” All of the events pertain to activities involving water. The program is free to participants and is for ages Kindergarten to sixth grade.

Taylors Party Rental of Hamlet provided a dunking booth and bouncing castle for the kids at the event.

“We wanted to have something that would attract the kids in the heat of the summer,” said Jesse Gibson, director of the Richmond County Libraries. “And that it did.”

The sprinklers were running and kids continued to laugh and cool off all afternoon.

A.J. Bennett 5, of Rockingham said that he was having a great time in the sprinklers.

Brianna Lord, 10, of Rockingham said that this is her first time attending and she is having a great time.

“It’s just fun running around in the water and seeing the people in the dunking booth,” Lord said.

Since the program began on June 24 this was just a fun day for them to relax.

Ariel Ingram, 10, of Hamlet said that this was just a day of fun and no reading. Richmond County children weren’t the only ones taking part in the fun.

“I came out here to have fun,” said Zachary Moore of Laurel Hill.

Free snow cones were also provided to the children.

“We had a pretty good turnout,” said Gibson.

This event brought 250 kids and the Hamlet Library had a total of 140.

Hollie Nivens can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 19 or by e-mailing at hnivens@yourdailyjournal.com.