BELHAVEN — A love of reading is a special gift to share with the community, and on Monday, the Belhaven library did just that during its inaugural Community Day celebration. Marking the beginning of its summer reading kickoff, the library invited community members to come out and enjoy a day of fun, games, food and literacy.

“Our summer reading program is all about enhancing our youth through upping their reading skills,” Saunders said. “It’s all centered around keeping our kids reading.”

The event featured face painting, activities and a bounce house for the kids, as well as story time. For adults, the community day brought together a number of community resources, including the North Carolina Highway Patrol, the Beaufort County Health Department, Legal Aid NC, Ruth’s House, the Mid East Commission Area Agency on Aging, the Beaufort County Department of Social Services and N.C. Works.

Belhaven mayor Ricky Credle manned the turntables as DJ during the event, and Pastor Marian Barrow offered a singing of the hymn “Open The Flood Gates.”

While the event met with some rain in the early afternoon hours, according to Saunders, the weather didn’t stop anyone from enjoying the event.

“We want to let people know that we will do this every year,” Saunders said. “This is just a start and next year we are hoping to go a lot bigger than we were able to do this year.”

Since taking leadership of the Belhaven Library, Saunders has made it a goal to make the library a place to be enjoyed by community members of all ages. Most recently, the library completed work on a teen room with the support of area businesses.

“We want to encourage the community to come to the library as much as they can,” Saunders said. “Read, read, read.”

The Belhaven Library, as well as libraries throughout the Beaufort Martin Hyde Regional Library system, organizes programs and events for the community throughout the year. For more information on the programs at your local library, click to www.bhmlib.org.