Nearly 45,000 residents read more than 48 million minutes as part of Jefferson County Public Library’s summer reading program, according to a news release from the library district.

Summer 2018’s numbers are up from 43,000 participants and about 37 million minutes read in 2017, the release said. Because Jeffco residents exceeded the library district’s goals, Foothills Animal Shelter will receive $500, compliments of the Jefferson County Library Foundation, the release said.

“We’re beyond excited to see our summer reading program continue to break records year after year,” Pam Nissler, the library district’s executive director, said in the news release. “Summer reading helps us create a community of readers in Jefferson County while helping kids maintain grade-level proficiencies over the summer.”

Jeffco readers earned prizes for their reading, including food, books and amusement park tickets for the kids and teens, and a drawing for movie tickets for the adults. The program also included school incentives. Participating schools competed for five $800 prizes to support their school library or a literacy program in their school. The prizes were awarded thanks to contributions from the Library Board of Trustees and the Jefferson County Library Foundation.

The winning schools were those with the highest percentage of program finishers, compared to their enrollments. They are Foothills Preschool, Dennison Elementary, Bell Middle School, Green Mountain High School and Addenbrooke Classical Academy.

Summer Reading Fun Facts:

• 4,204 babies “read” 2,113,185 minutes

• 18,549 children read 14,358,843 minutes

• 7,245 teens read 8,640,396 minutes

• 14,930 adults read 24,401,889 minutes

• 52 percent of registered readers finished the program (minimum of 16 hours of reading for teens/adults; 8 hours for kids and babies)