Mayor's Literacy Challenge reports growth to 2,479 registrants; library cites major in‑kind support from local partners

A library staff member who led the presentation (identified in the meeting as Tanya) told the commission that the Mayor's Literacy Challenge has expanded since the library consolidated prior youth and county adult reading programs into a single, year‑round structure.

"When we first came on board in 2023 the city of Surprise had a reading program for school age children... so we decided to combine the two," Tanya said. She said registrations increased over several years from about 401 in the program’s earlier iteration, to 1,682 last year and 2,479 this year.

Tanya described prize and partner arrangements: Surprise Sports & Tourism provided access to spring‑training passes that registrants used (she said Surprise registrants ordered or earned more than 10,700 passes to spring training), and a local Culver's owner donated roughly $77,000 worth of in‑kind coupons to support program prizes. Raffle prizes — including electronics and gift items — were purchased with library budget funds, and classroom pizza parties and a traveling trophy recognize top finishing classes and schools.

She said the library consolidated reading‑tracking software to the Great Reading Adventure platform to provide consistency for patrons across seasons and reduce retraining. Tanya also noted that the library will continue to partner with restaurants and tourism groups for prizes and said staff would deliver pizza to the winning third‑grade class the following day.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about school tracking and prize mechanics and offered suggestions for publicity and local news outreach. The presentation ended with the Chair thanking Tanya; no formal action or policy vote occurred on the literacy program at the March 12 meeting.