Naturita Community Library announced a year-long challenge March 1 to promote a love of books and reading in general. Cliff Allred, the library’s Collections Development Coordinator, told the Forum in a March 14 interview that the programming has been broken up into four age ranges.
“Raena (Michelle Wedel) and Amanda (Richards) put a lot of work into this,” he said. “We want to get everybody reading, and we have a new game plan for this year.”
“Book Bandits” has been set up for 0-6 year olds, “Word Wizards” is for ages 7-12, “Dystopic Dragons” includes 13-17, the young adult category, and “Tome Titans” is the adult division for ages 18 and up.
Each of the four groups have reading lists, bingo cards and more. The “Book Bandits” have a a 1,000-book challenge. Readers are eligible to win prizes, and drawings will be taking place every three months, with the first happening in June. A grand prize drawing will take place in February of 2027 to celebrate the year-long program.
Book reviews are encouraged, and those will be displayed throughout the library.
Many books are available in house, but Allred said there are opportunities for audio books too, through Libby, a library app that allows patrons to listen. Interlibrary loan is another option to get harder-to-find books that other libraries have in possession, and Naturita Community Library is a part of a 38-library consortium and can access texts from all over Colorado and even surrounding states.
Library Branch Manager Amanda Richards acknowledged Raena Michelle Wedel, for putting in the majority of the work, designing the program and materials.
“We are going out and talking to sponsors about prizes and what not, but she designed this from the ground up and spent a lot of time on it,” Richards said. “This is her passion project.”
Allred said he sure hopes people will be inspired to read. Currently, he’s into an old Russian science fiction book by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. He said it’s only 120 pages, translated and quite interesting. Allred reads a fair amount of nonfiction, he said. Recently, he read “In My Time of Dying,” a book about a young journalist in a war who had a near-death experience — profound reading, Allred said. And, “Where the Wasteland Ends” by Theodore Roszack is a longer book about societal problems and the greater world that means something to him.
Allred said there’s more to access at Naturita Community Library, including technology and the Reading Minds Studio for podcasting, holding private meetings or recording. Glade Hadden will be doing historical and archeological tours this summer too.
Allred has also organized an Easter adoption event with Hoof & Paw animal shelter April 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
As summer approaches, Richards said she wants families to know that last year the Naturita Community Library partnered with West End Public Schools District and West End Family Link for the summer literacy immersion program, which ran two full weeks from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Through it, child care and meals were provided. Last summer, 32 kids registered, and it was highly successful.
The library will continue the literacy program again for 2026, only this time for three weeks. Richards said it’s been planned to not overlap with any other community programs and will also include the Pinhead Institute, plus volunteers from the middle and high school.
“The ability to offer to families child care is such a huge deal around here,” Richards said. “Summer is hard for a lot of families to find care — and to pay for care,” she said. “These three weeks at the end of summer, they don’t have to worry about their kid. It will be educational and supervised, and they don’t have to worry about snacks and meals.”
Richards said the program will run the last three weeks of July, before school starts, July 13-31, Monday through Thursday.
