Volunteers from Mericle Real Estate Services help restore Pittston Township park

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Irem Shrine designer bingo planned

<p>WEST PITTSTON &#8212; The West Pittston Library wanted to show the local kids that reading could be really sweet &#8211; and what&#8217;s sweeter than pie?</p><p>The library hosted their Summer Reading Program&#8217;s wrap-up event Saturday afternoon, and the avid readers got to finish off summer with a &#8220;bang&#8221; in the form of a pie in the face of their chosen librarian.</p><p>The Summer Reading Program was a seven-week program hosted by the library to encourage kids to keep up their reading literacy. The participant requirements were simple: get lost in a book for at least 20 minutes a day for 6 days a week, equaling a total of 2 hours of reading a week.</p><p>The readers then report back to the library and get their &#8220;time card&#8221; stamped. If the minimum is read, the readers get a prize. If they went above and beyond, they are on track to qualify as a &#8220;Golden Finisher.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We set up the prizes in tiers,&#8221; said Children&#8217;s Library Coordinator Summer Belles. &#8220;Participants received a certificate of completion, &#8216;finishers&#8217; got a prize package as well as were entered to win a drawing of Barnes &amp; Noble gift cards, and the &#8216;Golden Finishers,&#8217; the ones who went above and beyond the goal, received all of the above plus are entered to win an art prize basket.&#8221;</p><p>The West Pittston Library&#8217;s summer reading goal was measured in minutes &#8212; this summer the goal was 90,000 minutes total.</p><p>&#8220;We set the &#8216;Pie in the Face&#8217; incentive so that after a total of 62,000 minutes was met, for every 4,000 minutes completed after that a staff member would get a pie in the face. If all 90,000 is met, every single one of us gets pied by one of the Top Readers,&#8221; added Belles.</p><p>Overall, the program wrapped up with 48 finishers and a total of 96,080 minutes logged. (That equals out to 1,601 hours.) Having met the goal, all eight librarians at the West Pittston Library knew they were in for a suddenly sweet surprise.</p><p>&#8220;The kids had a great time and some of them are very strong!&#8221; laughed West Pittston librarian Anne Bramblett-Barr, as she cleaned a smattering of whipped cream off her face.</p><p>The &#8220;Highest Reader&#8221; present at the event and second overall in the program was 9-year-old Samara Campenni of West Pittston. She logged over 4,900 minutes reading and was rewarded with the first pick of whom to pie.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been waiting for this all summer,&#8221; said Campenni. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been telling Miss Maria since the beginning that I was going to pie her, and I did!&#8221;</p><p>Even the kids who were &#8220;pie spectators&#8221; loved the activities.</p><p>&#8220;This was awesome,&#8221; said 9-year-old Mia Belles, also of West Pittston. &#8220;I had 1,600 minutes, but it was great to watch anyway.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We definitely had a great reaction,&#8221; added Summer Belles. &#8220;This was the first time we held it, but we think it might become a new summer tradition here.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Librarian Mary Jo Sedon, left, joins other librarians in holding their whipped cream pies that will be put in their faces by children successfully completing the West Pittston Library summer reading program on Saturday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL081615Pied_2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Librarian Mary Jo Sedon, left, joins other librarians in holding their whipped cream pies that will be put in their faces by children successfully completing the West Pittston Library summer reading program on Saturday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL081615Pied_1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Ameriana Walker, 8, of West Pittston, right, prepares to throw a whipped cream pie in the face of West Pittston Library director Anne Bramblett Barr for reading throughout the summer on Saturday afternoon. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL081615Pied_1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Ameriana Walker, 8, of West Pittston, right, prepares to throw a whipped cream pie in the face of West Pittston Library director Anne Bramblett Barr for reading throughout the summer on Saturday afternoon. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Rachel Holly</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>The Times Leader newsroom may be reached at 570-829-7242 or on Twitter @TLnews.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

West Pittston Library reading program ends with smash