VALLEY — Despite Saturday being an excessively hot day, there was a good turnout for Saturday’s Summer Reader Kickoff on the lawn of Bradshaw-Chambers County Library.

“Based on the tickets we collected, we estimate that there were between 350 to 400 people there,” Librarian Mary Hamilton said. “With the weather being so hot, people didn’t hang around a long time, and we had more people inside the library than we normally do at the summer kickoff. Over 1,200 books were checked out, and our reading registration stands at around 500. It was a great start for our summer reading program.”

Hamilton thanked vendors who were set up under tents to have games for prizes for the children.

“Our teen volunteer group worked very hard, and we appreciate that,” she said. “Local churches and civic clubs provided manpower for the games. A group from Plant City Baptist had snow cones and a group from Happy Valley Baptist Church was there with popcorn.”

Emory Health Care of West Point had one of the more popular stopping places. Giving out bottles of cold water were Vanessa Sessions, Kitty Dopp, Angie Rudd, Sharon Williams and Diane Cousins. Bobby Ann McCollough and Debra Riley of the Valley Women’s Sevice League manned the softball throw booth. The Friends of the Library were working another popular booth. They gave out free slices of Papa John’s pizza.

Tabitha Truitt, Diane Glaze, Robin Brown and Jade Letson of the library staff were underneath one of the tents passing out brochures on the Summer Reading program and tickets to participate in the various games. Representatives of the Chattahoochee Federal Credit Union were there making sand art bracelets, and CFCU mascot Hopper the Frog was there to free the children. East Alabama Fire Department mascot Patches was there doing all sorts of tricks (and squirting people with water) on his tiny fire truck.

Lanett Police Chief Johnny Wood and Valley Police Officer Lawrence Howell were there to demonstrate new police cruisers from the two departments.

At 6:30 p.m. Monday evening, the library hosted family night. It was a touch-a-truck event, which gave children the chance to come out to see and explore different types off trucks, tractors and emergency response vehicles.

“We want to thank everyone for coming out on Saturday despite the hot weather,” Hamilton said. “It helped get our summer program off to a wonderful start. We have lots of fun programs lined up this summer, and we want lots of children and family members to come out and see them.”