Amidst funding cuts to programs at the Silver Strand Youth & Teen Center, the Friends of the Library and Coronado Public Library partnered to help provide weekly public programs for the Center throughout the summer. The “Summer on the Strand!” events, held every Wednesday morning from June 18 to August 13 at the Youth Center, have proved to be a big hit, seeing great weekly turnout from both Youth Center families and families from the community at large.
The Coronado Public Library regularly partners with the Youth Center, providing books and working with them to host programs. One such event was the reception held at the Library earlier this year featuring the Center’s young artists who participated in the Boys and Girls Clubs of America National Arts Contest. “That was really great,” Jacqueline Luna, Senior Librarian at the Coronado Public Library, who oversees programs, outreach, and marketing, said of the event. “We had a big opening ceremony and party for the kids, and we’ve had a great relationship with them over the past few years.”
Luna explained that in the past, the Youth Center has typically been able to bring their kids into town to the Library to experience extra programs the Library would have. “With the current environment, they didn’t have the ability to come up here this summer, so they were looking for extra programming ideas, and something we always see is a need for more programs down in the Strand.”
The Friends of the Coronado Public Library (FOL), a public benefit community nonprofit organization, was able to step in and provide funding to keep those summer events going this year. “It was wonderful [to help out], particularly because this was an established program that kids were used to that was going to disappear,” Carl Luna, the FOL president, said. “We’re glad to step in and fund it now, and into the future, because this is a natural program for the Library to do and for the Friends to support. We’ve already got it in our budget for the coming year.
“Libraries are really community and civic centers,” he added. “They bring all of the community together and try to serve all of the different groups in Coronado with programs of a variety of sorts. Our military families are such an important part of the Coronado community, and the more we can do to support the Library and support those military families is a pleasure on our part, and it’s the reason we exist.”
With the support from FOL, Jacqueline Luna and the Library staff were able to bring in a wide variety of activities from outside talent and organizations. “We had a great magic show with David Skale, who was super funny,” she noted. “A Brazilian group came in and played music that was really interactive with the kids. We’ve had Tidepools with Living Coast, we’ve had a Crazy About Chemistry class that they did, crafting with the Rad Hatter, and our last one on August 13 is a hula performance with Makani Kai. They’re going to do some dances and bring the kids in to do that, and have some crafts for the kids to do, as well.”
While organizing these events, Luna also tried to incorporate the Youth Center’s “Around the World” theme with their programs for the kids this year. “I tried to pull in some ‘Around the World’ options, like the Brazilian band, the upcoming hula performance, and Storytelling with Aunt Li-Anne, who did storytelling on different cultures of the Americas. The program incorporated different folklore. The kids were pulled into the stories and got to participate in them, and I thought was a really fun way to do it.”
The weekly programs at the Silver Strand Youth Center have been held on Wednesday mornings. They’ve been open to the public and have experienced a great turnout throughout the summer, averaging over 80 people with each program.
“We really tried to pick a variety of things that would be entertaining, educational, and engaging. We picked things that we didn’t necessarily have going on here at our physical Library location because we didn’t want to be repeating the same things back and forth,” she explained.
“It was for an all-ages crowd, so we tried to pick things that would appeal to as many kids as possible. The Center has a lot of elementary-age youth, but they also have middle school youth. Additionally, a lot of kids that were coming from around the community were even younger, so we really did see quite the gamut of ages at these programs, which was wonderful.”
Local partners also got involved in programming, with the Coronado Fire Department showcasing their equipment and fire safety.
“They brought their truck, showed off the ladders, and did their thing. It’s one of those things that never fails to impress,” Luna mentioned with a laugh, adding how big of a fan her daughter is of fire trucks.
“It was really great that they were able to come down and present, as well.
“It’s been fantastic because all of the kids from the Center can come to this, and then families from the community come. It has been really convenient for them and a great way to expose them to Library programs and all of the wonderful things that we offer,” she added.
“We’ve had library staff at every event who have been giving out our Summer Reading prizes each week, as well, and it was really wonderful for our staff to be able to engage with the community over there and be part of a different area. Our goal is always to bring people in, but we also want to be where they are whenever we can.”
“It’s not just going to the Library, checking out a book, and going home,” Carl Luna agreed.
“You can go to the Library and participate in programs there, and across the community. The Library has partnerships with various schools and nonprofit groups to provide Library services, programs, and expertise. The job of the Friends is to help provide the funding over and above what they receive from the City in order to be able to organize all of these different programs that make the Library inclusive to the community. This also expands the Library’s programs and opportunities.”
FOL is able to support the Library and its programs through bequests and donation gifts, FOL membership dues, and from people who patronize the FOL book fairs and Friends of the Library Bookstore behind the Library. “The goal is to keep our library functioning as one of the best, if not the best, in the region,” he said.
The proceeds from all of that goes to help with supporting the basic, $60,000 worth of programming the Library does every year, in addition to special projects, such as this one, the partnership with the Library and Camp Able, and special projects with the Library such as when the Teen Center was redone, and now looking at redoing things in the Children’s Library.
“We provide the logistics to support these things, but it’s our members and the community who provide the donations,” he said. “It’s always a good place to be able to put money because it goes right back into the community.”
With the continued support from FOL and such a successful partnership with the Silver Strand Youth Center, the Library is hoping to be able to make “Summer on the Strand!” an annual event. “[The Youth Center] was such a wonderful partner to work with on this, and we felt fortunate to have them and their support,” Jacqueline Luna said of being able to open the event up to the community. “To be able to provide these programs for those kiddos was awesome, and it was a perfect venue to have them. We love our Library and we love being able to bring our Library wherever we’re at.”
The final “Summer on the Strand!” event will be held on Wednesday, August 15, at 9:30 a.m. at the Silver Strand Center located at 1302 Leyte Rd. For more information on this and other upcoming Library events, please visit cplevents.org.
For more information on the Friends of the Coronado Public Library, including membership, events such as their annual Book Fair or recent Picnic at the Library with live music from the School of Rock band, the Friends of the Library Bookstore, and more, please visit their website at https://www.coronadofol.org/.
The Silver Strand Youth & Teen Center provides recreational and educational programming for military families throughout the year for children aged 5 to 18.
For more information about the Center, please visit https://coronado.navylifesw.com/programs/81be9302-d1df-4802-9f7b-ed6ab2ea0876.
VOL. 115, NO. 33 – Aug. 13, 2025