Southern Pines Public Library, Southern Pines Primary School and Boys and Girls Club staff provided all children K-5 attending the Boys & Girls Club with learning opportunities throughout the summer, including 45 minute, small group reading sessions with teachers and teacher assistants three times a week, hour- long book clubs every week, and at least 30 minutes of Stop, Drop and Read time every day. The children were also enrolled in the Library’s Summer Reading Program and the time they spent reading at the Boys & Girls Club summer program counted towards books and prizes. The total enrollment of children 5-11 at the Boys & Girls Club during the summers of 2013 and 2015 were 199 students. In the summer of 2014, students from both SOuthern Pines and Aberdeen participated so enrollment increased to 287.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Sandhills serves any child between the ages of 5-18.

All students in the Boys and Girls Club participated in literacy activities. Students who had completed grades K-2 who were identified as “at risk” by the schools, are targeted for participation in the reading groups.

The mission of the Boys & Girls Club of the Sandhills is to inspire, enable and educate young people from all backgrounds and circumstances to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.

The goal of the summer learning project is to encourage families with children who have been identified by the school as already being below grade level in reading to send their children to the Boys & Girls Club for the summer, in order to maintain and increase their reading levels. There students are motivated to read through experiential learning, incentives and structure.