Summer Program Plants the Seeds Needed to 'Dream Big'

Nature and reading are being celebrated at the through a series of events made possible through the collaborative support of the Garden Club of Watchung, The Friends of the Watchung Library, Burpee Seed Company, and the New Jersey Audubon.  

This summer’s reading theme for children is DREAM BIG!, and readers are invited to be part of Watchung Library’s Garden of Readers by planting sunflowers in their gardens or yards.  The big flower will mark the home of a big reader.   Burpee Seed Company has donated packets of very tall sunflowers, which will be distributed to the first 250 children who register for the summer reading club.  Registration for summer reading begins on June 18. 

The New Jersey Audubon has also donated sunflowers seeds, and packets of these seeds will be available to teens and adults who register for summer reading clubs.  Once the sunflowers have blossomed, readers of every age are invited to email photos of their sunflowers to watchunglibrary@gmail.com so that their reading and growing success can be shared with the community.

As a prequel to this summer’s activities, the Garden Club of Watchung sponsored the Green Thumbs program held at the Watchung Library on May 2.  In this program, presented by the Environmental Education Center of the Somerset County Park Commission, children learned about starting sunflower seeds and planting tomatoes.  A bird feeder for sunflower seeds, donated the New Jersey Aubudon and the Garden Club of Watchung, has been set up in one of the gardens in front of the library.  The Garden Club also has plans to plant sunflowers around the library.

Community support of reading continues to grow.  To get this summer’s DREAM BIG! reading club started in a giant way, the Garden Club of Watchung and the Friends of the Watchung Library will be presenting the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, a puppet show to be performed by the Crabgrass Puppet Theatre at the Watchung Arts Center on Thursday, June 28 at 11:00 AM.   The Crabgrass Puppet Theatre’s colorful and hilarious musical retelling of the tallest of tales promises to be full of fun for children in pre-K through Grade 3 and their families.  

The show, Jack and Beanstalk, is free but registration is required.  Registration can be done in-person at the library, by telephone, or online at www.somerset.lib.nj.us.  Watchung Library is located behind the Watchung Arts Center at 12 Stirling Road in Watchung.  For more information, please call 908-561-0117.

Watchung Public Library is a branch of the Somerset County Library System. Other branches are located in Bridgewater, Bound Brook, Hillsborough, at the Mary Jacobs Library in Rocky Hill, North Plainfield, Peapack & Gladstone, Somerville and Warren Township.

Submitted by Sharon Orlando.