Jim Thorpe Reads! is an initiative of the Dimmick Memorial Library to foster community and promote reading. With support from schools, local businesses, service organizations, social services, churches, and private organizations, Jim Thorpe Reads! will select one book for each of the following categories: Adult, Young Adult, Elementary, and Early Childhood. Books will be distributed at minimal cost through schools, markets, and other venues so that all residents have an opportunity to interact with neighbors in discussion groups, staged at neighborhood locations. Finally, Jim Thorpe Reads! will culminate with a festival to celebrate the community’s reading experience

THE PLAN

Share a vision of a whole community reading

Envision parents reading to children and children reading to adults.

Imagine shoppers at the market slipping a title into the cart at checkout.

Picture book groups meeting at living rooms, schools, fire halls, and auditoriums.

Finally, picture the community gathered to celebrate at a finale where participants and supporters are recognized and rewarded.
 
In October 2007 a group of Friends of the Library and library staff met to plan how to make that vision a reality for the Jim Thorpe community, served by the Dimmick Memorial Library, the area encompassed by Jim Thorpe Borough, Penn Forest Township, and Kidder Township, concomitant to the Jim Thorpe School District. Like other regions around America , the Dimmick’s service area has experienced less library patronage with fewer reading materials in households. Concerned librarians are not alone.

School staffs are also concerned when children arrive at school less prepared to engage books and other written material and, later, may struggle with reading and writing assignments as they progress into secondary education. Other media competes for the public’s attention. To address those concerns, the library group created an initiative called Jim Thorpe Reads!

Although this is a new initiative for the Jim Thorpe area, this program has been launched around the United States . Peoria , Illinois called it Peoria Reads!; Kansas City called it United We Read; Pasadena in California called it One City , One Story. Closer to home, Easton , Pennsylvania , called its idea, The Big Read.

To help, the American Library Association has published a guide online with a clear plan of operation for such an initiative in communities large and small around the nation. Called One Book, One Community, it has been adopted as the manual for this plan.

Every community “read” has a similar pattern. After books are chosen, active members of the pubic lend their support from government, schools, civic organizations, clubs, and business to organize the program and subsidize its cost. Once the effort is kicked off, participants join together in discussion groups to talk about their response to the stories. At the end, the plan calls for a celebration at a finale where supporters and participants are recognized and, possibly, meet book authors.

Jim Thorpe Reads! Core Committee was not satisfied to repeat the experience of other municipalities, with “one book, one community.” To address the needs of our families, committee members chose to expand its scope to include children’s literature as well. The plan calls for one title for each age group: Adult, Young Adult, Elementary, and Early Childhood.

The Core Committee believes the Jim Thorpe Reads! can be a pilot program for a larger future plan. According to the Carbon County Economic and Heritage Development Resource Guide, the Borough and two townships have a population of 11, 500 residents, far fewer than Easton’s which is similar to all Carbon County. However, the smaller size has advantages for communication and effectiveness. At this point the Jim Thorpe Reads! Core Committee decided to initiate the plan as a pilot program within the bounds of the school district. If successful, perhaps all three county libraries could at a future time expand the idea and cover all of Carbon.

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