Kids find inspiration to fulfill their dreams at Lincoln Public Library Summer Reading Program

 

[June 25, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

What better way to celebrate the first day of summer than to spend it at the Lincoln Public Library Summer Reading Program. This year’s theme is “Reading Takes You Everywhere.” And what better person to lead off the entertainment than St. Louis based Juggling Jeff. Jeff is a perennial favorite, and has been requested to perform on many occasions in Lincoln.

LPL Director Richard Sumrall and Jaime welcome the kids to the library annex for Thursday morning’s program.

The summer reading program rewards students for their reading accomplishments according to their age. The metric is how much time a participant chooses to spend each week reading. At the end of the program in August, summer reading participants receive rewards for achieving their goal. There are almost five hundred participants in this year’s summer reading program. It is one of the most popular programs of many offered by the Lincoln Public Library.

Jeff is much in demand throughout the Midwest for his fantastic juggling, but he also pairs the show with an inspirational message for his audience. He is a juggler of note, an inspirational speaker for corporations, actor, and soon to be author of his first book. In short, he is the complete entertainer.

Rachael is part of Jeff’s TEAM in this stunt, one of the parts of his dream success.

Thursday morning he presented his Dream Show, the theme of which is to help a person find their passion and make it part of their life. “I like to present what I call relational shows during which I try to form a bond between my audience and myself,” he said.

Whether it is a roomful of corporate executives or one-hundred excited kids and their parents in the Lincoln Public Library, he tells them a story of dreams found and dreams followed to success.

He listed six steps to dream fulfillment, all of which he used to become an entertainer and speaker. As he went through the list he had the kids in his audience shout back each one. Find a dream, learn, team building, focus, trying new things, and never giving up from a path to dream fulfillment.

The kids enthusiastically responded to his message.

The Lincoln Public Library Thursday morning summer reading program continues through July. The library requests that families sign up for the entertainment before Thursday. Contact Jaime, Alexa, or Brigitte at the Youth Services Department at 217-732-5732.

[Curtis Fox]