MATTHEW BURNETTE, Staff Writer

Registration is now open for a new, free summer literacy camp that offers a week of fun and learning at three local libraries.

The camp is organized by the Southern Association for Reading Advancement, or SARA. According to SARA Board Secretary Hannah Davis, the camp looks to accomplish two goals.

“It’s meant to really introduce the community to SARA and the kinds of early literacy programs that they can expect out of our early learning centers which we are hoping to open as of fall,” she explained. “It is also doing the kind of work that we are trying to accomplish on a year-round basis.”

“We are really getting our foot in the door with the community and the community is doing the same with us as well,” she added.

Children from ages 3 to 13 are invited to spend a week at either Franklin County Library in Winchester from June 2-6, the Manchester Coffee County Library from June 22-26 or the Coffee County Lannom Library from June 30 to July 3.

Each camp is broken into three age groups with different themes, focuses and two-hour meeting times.

“Really we’re just trying to cast a really large net with the early literacy camp just to show people what we can do and do a lot of good work within a short amount of time,” said Davis.

The youngest age group, 3-5, will meet from 8 to 10 am, and they will focus on age-specific skills such as early phonics, letter and sound identification, how to handle books, really small words, reading and comprehension skills and early vocabulary learning. Their theme will be A Week at the Zoo.

Ages 6-9 will meet from 10:30 am to12:30 pm. Their theme is Oceanographers and will focus more on reading comprehension and vocabulary building, working on sight words, sentence structure and early narrative skills.

The 10-13 age group, the camp’s oldest, will meet from 1:30-3:30 pm. Their theme will be Around the World in a Week. Their focus will be on more elevated literacy skills like looking at different genres of reading and writing.

They will also get to participate in a modeled Socratic seminar where they can practice verbal, written and reading communication skills.

By the end of the week, each age group will get to make their own book based off their skill levels. The camp will combine academic sources and activities with fun camp activities to help encourage strong literacy skills in attendees.

Davis noted that all three libraries have been their “biggest cheerleaders” in getting the camp started. She says that everyone they’ve spoken to about the camp has been eager and recognize the need for it in the communities.

“Everyone is hoping that we will stick to our promise of it becoming an annual camp and we absolutely will,” explained. “The response has been really positive which was our goal which is also part of the reason that we made the camp free so that we can get as many kids in the door as we can.”

Enrollment for the Franklin County camp is open until the end of May, and the two Coffee County camps’ enrollment is open until mid-June.

A link to enroll can be found on SARA’s website saraelc.org with a link for each session. There will also be on-site enrollment at the three libraries from now until the deadline.

Information for the camps can be found on the SARA nonprofit Facebook page where the group will also launch a new fundraising program within the next couple of weeks to help fund camp resources and support the opening of the SARA early learning centers.