Students in the Schodack School District have been traipsing down the hill to the local library for the last 20 summers.

It started with an offer of free ice cream to children who completed a reading program created by the school and town library.

"As an elementary teacher I saw a need for kids to continue reading in the summer," said Linda Wemple, president of the Schodack Central School Faculty Association. "Kids who read in the summer maintain their sight words and skills."

She brought the local union in to give the project some steam — and "another way we can help kids." Longtime Castleton Public Library librarian Darlene Miller was enthusiastic.

"We're like bookends," Wemple said of the collaborators.

Now, every summer, elementary teachers, high school social workers, art teachers and teaching assistants disappear into the red brick library across from the Hudson River in Rensselaer County.

They read to students, make crafts with them and bring in animals for them to interact with — all activities tied to reading. Although the small building is jam-packed with books, puzzles and art projects, 20 to 30 students and parents find space inside on Friday nights for reading.

The union provides the top three summer readers in each age group a gift certificate to a bookstore, and other reader prizes. It's not about who reads the fastest, or the most: It's about spending time in the pages of imagination. Students tally their reading time, and parents verify it. Someone reading to them counts as well.

The local union, along with organizations and businesses, donates books and prizes to the children's reading programs at the town library. Summer achievers are recognized at a fall assembly.

High school students from the Key Club are at the library after school to help younger kids with their homework.

Miller visits the school monthy, handing out fliers about upcoming programs at the town library. Sometimes she dresses as a fictional character to highlight a featured book or author.

"All we want is kids to read and use our library," she said. The library won first runner-up for best small library in America in the 2008 Gates Foundation and Library Journal competition.

To get them primed for a summer enriched with books, Wemple takes students to the library each June for a "walking field trip."

"I have watched kids who you would not expect to come along and visit the library, stand up and be part of a program for the summer," said Wemple, whose love of reading began as a child.

"My parents read to me," she said. "I want to share that with my students."