The Maricopa County Reads program kept people busy this summer.

Community readers logged 395,259 minutes of reading during the program, which ran from June 1 through Aug. 1. Local branch Manager Maren Hunt said one of the Fountain Hills librarians calculated the time to be the amount of time it takes for the moon to orbit the earth about 10 times.

The Fountain Hills Library had a total of 349 participants during the program.

Hunt said the program helps people of all ages.

“Parents and other caregivers who read to their young children help their language acquisition,” she said. “The more words children hear throughout the day, the better their vocabularies tend to be. In addition, children who listen to or see their grownups read are more likely to develop a love of reading that lasts throughout their lifetimes.”

She added that school-aged children and teens can experience learning loss when they’re not attending school during the summer.

“Often referred to as the ‘summer slide,’ reading during the summer prevents a drastic loss in reading skills and helps kids pick up learning where they left off before the end of the school year.”

According to Hunt, reading helps adults retain their mental acuity and provides hours of entertainment and enlightenment to boot.

The summer reading program is a favorite among library staffers.

“We love to hear about people’s experiences as they participate,” Hunt said. “We had one 80-plus-year-old gentleman participate for the first this year who regularly came to the library to let us know how many minutes he read each week.”

She said everyone who reached 1,000 points in the program received a code to redeem for a free book.

“The gentleman was excited to be able to donate his free book to benefit school children through the maricopacountyreads.org website.

Other prizes also were redeemed. Hunt said to date, nearly 400 prizes have been claimed with the most popular being Arizona State Park passes. More than 120 people have picked up passes at the library.

“We also had a lot of really fantastic prizes generously donated by the Fountain Hills Friends of the Library,” she said.

Prizes provided by the Friends included space-related toys and games for kids; for teens and adults, gift cards to experience some of the local businesses here in Fountain Hills, including restaurants, Fountain Hills Theater and more.

People who won prizes through the reading program have until tomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 15, to come to the library and claim them.

Weekly drawings were held to award prizes to people who had met specific point milestones each week.

Part of the reading program included activities at the library.

“We had a lot of great programs for all different age groups, and it was fun seeing people enjoy things like making ice cream in a bag, launch stomp rockets or relax with one of our music or art programs,” Hunt said.

She said fewer people participated in this year’s program than in some of the past years, but people who did participate were more engaged.

“Our overall achievement rate (people who reached at least 1,000 points) was 46 percent, with adult participants hitting 64 percent, she said.

Hunt said one of the goals this year in addition to promoting reading was to help people connect with the community.

“We worked in partnership with the town and other organizations to give people Summer Reading points by getting out and experiencing what Fountain Hills has to offer,” she said.

Visiting the River of Time Museum, visiting the botanical garden or taking an art walk around town were point-worthy. Packing a picnic and watching the fountain also qualified as an activity for points.

Hunt said more than 2,000 people throughout the county participated in at least five things of the 10 challenges in “10 Things” to claim 50 points.

“A Universe of Stories” was the theme this year for the annual reading program, which is provided to all public, tribal and military base libraries in the county.

Hunt said library staffers already are thinking and planning for next year’s summer reading program.

“We look forward to building on this year’s performance to make next summer even more magical,” she said.