When Montgomery City Elementary librarian Tara Polston decided to host a traveling library summer series, she wanted to bring fun and excitement of reading to all of the Montgomery County children.

“I’m just trying to get out to all of the smaller communities and meet people where they are rather than having them coming to us,” Polston said. “I know the public library is amazing, but for these smaller communities, if you don’t live in Montgomery City, then you know you have to pay for a card and they don’t come.”

The traveling library summer series, which is called “Meet Mrs. Polston At The Park,” had its second of five installments on June 22 at the Bellflower City Park, where more than 20 children showed up to hear a storytime session, make an ocean bottle craft and play with bubbles.

Polston received a $3,000 grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation during the spring that helped her develop her summer reading series. She was able to provide free books with the donation.

“I applied for it back in November or December and I never heard of anything until all of the sudden in that second week of May that I got an email saying that it should be mailed by May 16 and I should have it within seven days after that,” Polston said. “It was kind of a quick plan. I had put in there what I wanted to do when I wrote the grant, but I didn’t do any planning after that because I didn’t hear anything back.”

Jonesburg Elementary librarian Angel Davis also received a Dollar General grant that allowed her to make summer book boxes for children to take home. Each box has some books and activities.

The first installment of Polston’s summer series was held on June 8 at Wabash Park in Montgomery City. Twelve children were in attendance.

“The first one was pretty slow, but it rained all day,” Polston said. “So I pushed it out two weeks before and I didn’t push it out that day because I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to have it. I kept waiting. Then, it rained until 5 p.m. and it cleared up.”

The next installment of the summer series is scheduled for July 6 at New Florence City Park. The other installments will be at High Hill City Park on July 20 and Jonesburg Lions Park on Aug. 3.