226 libraries throughout Rhineland-Palatinate took part in the Rhineland-Palatinate Summer of Reading and Reading Aloud from June 23 to August 24, 2025. The Idar-Oberstein City Library also took part again and the successful participants were able to collect their certificates and raffle prizes at the closing event last Friday. Lord Mayor Frank Frühauf also stopped by and thanked the staff of the city library, the volunteers and the sponsors for the successful reading promotion campaign.
The Summer of Reading is aimed at children and young people between the ages of six and 16, while the Summer of Reading aloud is aimed at daycare children of reading age as well as potential readers. Children can successfully participate if they read or have at least three books read to them during the campaign period. The libraries are supported by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate with over 115,000 euros in funding as well as free materials and advertising.
"Thanks to funding from the Bürkle Foundation, Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank eG, the state and a private donor, we were able to purchase 222 new books for the summer of reading and great prizes for the raffle this year," reported library manager Sandra Ley. Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld in turn donated further prizes. In total, almost 100 prizes and numerous consolation prizes were available for the raffle.
231 children and young people registered for the summer of reading, "including, as always, more girls than boys," said Ley. 184 of them managed to read at least three books and received a certificate for doing so. A total of 1,728 books were read during the campaign period. There were 63 registrations for the summer of reading aloud. There were 43 successful participants, and a total of 360 books were read aloud.
Sandra Ley expressed her gratitude to the seven volunteers who play a key role in organizing the reading summer. Silvia Bugner-Riske, Helena and Paula Lordick, Miya Mertins, Brigitte Sommer and Christiane and Pauline Wayand interviewed the children in the storytelling corner of the library about the books they had read and also helped with the closing event. "Without this commitment, we wouldn't be able to run the summer of reading," emphasized the library director.