Even though she thinks it will be challenging to read every day during the summer, 9-year-old Emma Porter is participating in the summer reading program through the Rapid City Public Library because she thinks it's fun.

She did last year and said she enjoyed it.

"It was a lot of fun," she said. "There are fun prizes, and it gets you to read every day."

Emma attended the Summer Reading Kickoff Party on Wednesday at the downtown public library and said she was surprised at how many people were there.

"I thought there would just be like 50 people or so, but there's way more," she said.

Greta Chapman, library director, said she expected 300 to 400 people at the downtown location and about 200 people to attend the party at the north location. Chapman said this summer will be a significant year for the summer reading program because of the new location.

"It starts off with lots of folks, and we manage to sustain some pretty good numbers throughout the whole summer because of the type of activities we do," Chapman said.

At the kickoff party, hundreds of kids and parents were able to get their summer reading logs, meet the Frog and Toad characters, decorate bug hats, make a bug snack, play the "feely bug guessing game," listen to a Reptile Gardens bug lady, a Forest Service entomologist and a beekeeper.

As she stood in front of a kid-sized table decorating a bug hat, 6-year-old Keely Iverson said she was having fun.

Keely was one of the hundreds of kids who spent Wednesday morning at the downtown library participating in the Summer Reading Kickoff Party.

Having been to three stations already, Keely that her favorite part so far was making a "bug snack," which was made with two pretzels, cream cheese and licorice.

"They made one, and then they showed us the one that they made and we got to make one of our own," she said.

Keely said she also thought the bees were "pretty cool," but she didn't like the bugs much.

"I thought that they were kind of yucky," she said.

Susan Braunstein, youth services programming librarian, said she was impressed with the turnout at the downtown location.

"This is great," she said. "It's a really nice way to kick off the summer, getting all the families involved in reading; and really, the main goal of the library is to encourage reading all summer long."

The summer reading program theme this year is, "Catch the reading bug." Braunstein said the program is about bugs, and there are different events and activities planned throughout the summer.

After hearing about the summer reading program at school, 9-year-old Andrew Lemon asked his mom if he could participate. He said he was having fun at the party and was excited to think that he could win a skeleton prize this summer.

"It's a skeleton head. You can open his head and have his brain," Lemon said. "And then, I also want - you can only get it if you read for 90 days - and it was this giant cockroach."

His mom, Karla Lemon, said she is having her kids participate to promote summer reading. Her kids came to get their summer reading logs on the last day of school.

"They were very excited to start," she said. "They are supposed to either read or be read to for 15 minutes. Then, once they've done that for 30 days, they can bring their log into the library and they get some kind of prize or treat."

Chapman said the key to Rapid City's summer reading program is the enthusiastic staff. Another component to the program's success is that it is a social event for people of all ages.

"We have a well qualified staff, and they make it as fun as possible to get involved with reading," Chapman said. "Reading is the key to whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go. I can't think of any other thing that opens up opportunities and friendships than the ability to read."