The Effie & Wilton Hebert Public Library of Port Neches announced the winners of the 2019 Summer Reading Club contest. The winners are:

• Read to Me — First: Maverick Oleksy; second: Emilia and Lucas Alvarado; third: Isabella Van Wright.
• Kindergarten and First Grade — First: Crockett Oleksy; second: Anna Kalariparampil; third: Alexia Ellis and Deanna Albrecht.
• Second and Third Grade — First: Adwin Jomon; second: Arwin Jomon; third: Sebastian Kalariparampil.
• Fourth and Fifth Grade — First: Lawrence Nguyen; second: Aiza Merani; third: Shifa Jeelani.
• Bookmark design winner — Hailey Polk

The Hebert Library encouraged children to continue reading over the summer break through the contest, awarding coupons to dining spots like Whataburger and Pizza Inn and other prizes donated by local merchants for completing reading logs. Parents of infants up to prekindergarten read 20 books to their children to receive a coupon as part of the Read to Me program. Second- through fifth-grade students read three hours to earn their coupons.

“They love the programs and they love the reading,” said Carolyn Bedwell, Hebert Library children’s programs librarian assistant. “Their faces just light up when they come in to redeem their reading log for their coupons, so that’s very exciting to see.

Some 429 children registered for the program, and more than 12,940 read books and 2,523 hours of reading were logged.

“I feel in my own gut that it really improves their reading skills when they continue to read through the summer,” Bedwell said “I know I’ve had teachers that have also commented that they can really tell the kids who have read through the summer. They really do push our program.”

Sponsoring the program were: Barnes & Noble, BASF Total Petrochemicals LLC., Berry Top Creamery, Chick-fil-A, Chicken Express, Chili’s, Colorado Canyon, Crossroads Bowling, Daviss Donuts, Domino’s Pizza, The Friends of the Library, Golden Croissant, Hamburger Depot, Joe’s Crab Shack, Jumping World, LaSuprema, Mazzio’s Pizza, McAlister’s, McDonald’s, MCT Credit Union, Nannie & Pawpaw’s Sno Biz, Neches Federal Credit Union, Pizza Inn, Raising Cane’s, Shipley Do – Nuts, Snow Cone Factory, Sonic Drive In, Texas Roadhouse and Whataburger.