The Newburgh Free Library welcomed Newburgh residents on Saturday, May 6 for Family Reading Day in celebration of The Day of the Child. Families enjoyed live music and local food and were able to acquire books and participated in various literacy activities for the whole family to enjoy on Saturday, May 6 at the library on Grand St.

The Day of the Child emphasizes the importance of literacy for all children and is an internationally recognized initiative. The library during the course of the event was open to the public and families were encouraged to stop in and read. If families or children were also interested, they could sign up that day for library cards so they could take books home with them.

Mary Lou Carolan, Executive Director of the library greeted guests during the course of the afternoon, helped with serving food and enjoyed being amongst the community members in attendance. Carolan also highlighted the work of Laura Garcia, Community Engagement Coordinator for the library and the FACE (Family And Community Engagement) team of the Newburgh Enlarged City School District.

“Each year we celebrate International Children’s Day with what we call in Newburgh and with the Newburgh Free Library, we call it Family Reading Day. So the focus here is to develop literacy among our children and our families, and to have the parents model good reading practices to their kids,” said Carolan. “Today, we estimated close to 600 people here from start to finish so it’s just, it’s an amazing, collaborative effort with our Newburgh Free Library staff.”

Dr. Natasha Freeman-Mack, Assistant Superintendent Chief Equity Officer from the district also reflected on the day and its importance for the children that the district serves. “Today is not just about celebrating reading, it’s about you know, also celebrating our children. I think that books should be diverse. Books should speak to children as it relates to their culture and their experiences and even out here today, there are books that are diverse, we have a diverse community and organizations out here. And that’s, that’s important,” said Freeman-Mack. “For us to promote and push literacy and the need to read, it’s imperative that we do that.”

During the course of the afternoon, parents and children were able to listen and sing along to various musical performances, take pictures at the library’s photo booth, browse community resources such as the City of Newburgh Recreation Department and Fidelis Care, were able to enjoy some refreshing water from the City of Newburgh Water Department and various sweets from Perfect Sweets.

The Newburgh Free Library is located at 124 Grand Street in Newburgh. For more information, please call (845) 563-3600. For more information, please visit newburghlibrary.org.