After weeks of mystery, library plans to reveal announcement at Summer Kickoff Party

Taking a look at the Salina Public Library's social media pages over the past couple of weeks, it seems that some of its plans for the summer are being kept under wraps, but that's all going to change this week with the Summer Kickoff Party.

Happening from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday in Caldwell Plaza between the library and the City-County Building, Summer at the Library officially begins with a party featuring games, food, face painting, prizes and more.

The library's Facebook page has been teasing something big happening this summer, with clues and riddles, photos and videos featuring the phrase Project R.O.L. The account has also be actively trying to solve the puzzle itself, with a conspiracy board connecting pieces together with strings and thumbtacks.

To date, the library hasn't revealed much about what this project is, but encourages patron to come to the Kickoff Party to find out.

What is known about Project R.O.L?

Though she couldn't share much herself, Katie Zey, head of marketing for the library, said the organization is very excited for what this project is, with the announcement officially happening around 6:30 p.m. during the kickoff.

"We ... are going to gather our director and our assistant director ... to make a special announcement about our library and the future," Zey said. "This Project R.O.L. (campaign), we'll finally explain what this all means."

One thing Zey did say was that this project has big implications for the library, particularly for the children who are patrons there.

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Kickoff Party only the beginning of summer programs at the Salina Public Library

Zey said this summer will be full of events, programs and more at the library for patrons of all ages.

"This Friday we kickoff our summer, which is excited (itself), but it starts off a whole summer of exciting things that are happening," Zey said.

One of these is the popular summer lunch program for youth, which is available from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays from May 28 to Aug. 2. Zey said the library partners with St. John's Missionary Baptist Church to give free meals out at the McKenzie Center across the street from the library's main building.

"We run out (of meals) everyday. They're very popular," Zey said.

Another program is the Summer Learning Packets, which Zey said is a good way for children and youth to avoid the knowledge regression that often happens in the summer, while they aren't actively learning in a school setting.

"The tagline is 'avoid the summer slide,'" Zey said. "Kiddos can also earn candy and prizes doing that as well."

Another popular program will begin this Friday, with a summer reading challenge available to people of all ages. Zey said the library sets a goal each summer for how many books are read, and that goal has gone up again this year.

"Last year it was 15,000 (books) and we absolutely blew it out of the water," Zey said. "We bumped it up to 20,000 books (this year). That's community wide. All people have to do is read a book, it doesn't even have to be from the library, and then on our website they tell us how many books they read."

Zey said people that are interested in being drawn for a prize during the reading challenge can also leave their information.

"We do prize drawings weekly for each age group," Zey said. "That (challenge) goes until Aug. 1."

Finally, Zey said there are hundreds of other programs, events and activities at the library this summer. For more information and to see a list of things to do, visit the library's website, salinapubliclibrary.org.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Salina library making announcement at this year's Summer Kickoff