The Scranton Memorial Library announced that it has been awarded a $300,000-dollar, three-year grant from the Schumann Foundation to expand learning opportunities in its Children’s Department. The grant funds will be used to host a museum exhibit every winter and offer free half-day summer camps for school-age kids each summer, a significant expansion of the library’s services for children, according to library Director Sunnie Scarpa.

Scarpa said these free programs will enhance the library’s goal of being a place for joyful learning, where kids can explore their interests by providing unique experiences while also offering opportunities for families to learn together. According to Scarpa, offering this kind of experiential learning is critically important in the summer months when the “summer slide” can cause school-age children to lose ground academically.

“By offering fun, hands-on learning in the summer, Scranton Library hopes to help all children return to school ready to take on new academic challenges,” Scarpa said. “Families in town really do need more options.”

According to Scarpa, the library is coordinating with the Beach and Recreation Department on programming to enhance the offerings for both entities, while avoiding any redundancies.

“We have been working with Beach and Rec. to come up with these ideas because we don’t want to duplicate anything they are doing and [we] want to work together with them. But from what they told us, their camps book up very fast, and there is a waiting list so there is more need than there are opportunities right now,” Scarpa said. “We’re going to provide these summer half-day camps to complement what Beach and Rec. is doing, but still offer something a little bit different. The town focuses on sports in the summer so we will focus on projects like STEM, art, animal programs, and we think by doing that in summer will we meet a need for families and keep kids learning.”

The grant isn’t limited to funding summer projects, however, and will allow the library to provide a year-round schedule of programming.

“This grant will fund, and we have plans for, winter when everyone is cooped up and families are looking for things to do indoors,” Scarpa said. “We are already looking at programming down the road so that every winter there will be a new topic or a new theme to explore and something to look forward to in those winter months when there isn’t much going on.”

The ability to offer this enhanced programming and to have it funded via a long-term capacity is vital to the library’s mission, said Lydia Holland Head of Children’s Services at Scranton.

“Libraries play an important role in supporting the education and development of children,” said Holland. “Our expanded offerings will foster creativity, problem-solving, and exploration.”

The Schumann family and their support of the library has been a long and dedicated effort of philanthropy, according to Scarpa. The family’s generous donations have allowed the library to expand and thrive, Scarpa said.

“This is a huge opportunity for us to do more for the families in Madison than we ever thought possible and we are so excited about it,” said Scarpa. “We are very grateful to the Schumann Foundation for encouraging us to think big and try new things — the consistent support of the Scranton Library by the Schumann Family through the generations is so inspiring to us and we look forward to carrying forward that legacy. They have made donations to every capital project this library has ever undergone. After supporting the capital project for the children’s library, the Foundation actually came back to us and said they wanted to support the children’s library on an ongoing basis. Their generosity continues to be a source of inspiration for us. It is an incredible act of generosity and they are so supportive. We, and the town, are lucky to have such a family and Foundation supporting the library.”

The first program will start in January with a large-scale project focusing on turtles, Scarpa said.

“The project will kick off with the first museum exhibit, Turtle Travels, from the Ithaca Science Center in January of 2023. In Turtle Travels, visitors experience how scientists track hidden turtles using telemetry, check out how their shell shapes are suited to different habitats, design a turtle-friendly housing development, watch a loggerhead sea turtle swim through the ocean, and much more,” Scarpa said. “This will an interactive program, and we are really excited about this launch. We think children will really enjoy this. We are just thrilled. This will be an interactive and fun program. And it will all be free too.”

To learn more about this and other upcoming initiatives at the Scranton Library attend the Toast of the Town event at the Library on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 5:30 p.m. — an evening to thank their supporters, celebrate accomplishments, and explore possibilities.

For more information or to register, visit toastofthetown.eventbrite.com.