Ronald McDonald Visits North Wales Library

There was a bit of clowning around inside the North Wales Library Tuesday morning - but it was all worth it to promote the importance of reading.

While it rained cats and dogs outside, Ronald McDonald entertained children inside the library's A. Kirk and Marcia C. Field Community Center.

And they were ... lovin' it.

The McDonald's spokesman and Jonathan Chong, , presented a $1,000 donation to the library through the company's Ronald McDonald Children's Charities. 

It was all part of the four-city Ronald McDonald Summer Library Tour, which makes a donation to children's sections of libraries in the Greater Philadelphia Region.

The man in red and yellow and white then stuck around to tell children why it was important to respect books, complete with props like oversized books, magic tricks and a sock puppet. There was also the right amount of humor thrown in too.

"I set aside time each day for reading," Ronald said. "I call that taking my 'Book Time.'"

Ronald told the children reading is more fun when you read with excitement. 

"Picture what you read in your brain," he said.

Appropriately enough, Ronald then read the children and parents a story about a rainstorm. He had the girls howl whenever the word "wind" came up in the story, and he had the boys clap to mimic rain. He had parents yell "kaboom" for the word "thunder" and had one mom make zig-zag motions with her hands for lightning.

"Take Book Time each day because books are our friends," he said.

Then, Ronald opened up a gift from The Hamburglar: a book on making sock puppets.

The sock puppet then came to life and told the elementary students some more important reading tips, such as always use a bookmark instead of damaging pages and make sure hands are clean before using books.

"Never color, scribble or nibble on a book," said the sock puppet, who referred to himself as a bookworm. "Take care of books."

Ronald McDonald then had his "Reading Rangers" take a pledge to always respect books "for 500,000 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first" and to "take care of books every day and every way."

"I pledge to take Book Time to read, and reading with excitement indeed. I said it, I meant it, I'm here to represent it," said Ronald.

North Wales Library director Jayne Blackledge said McDonald's supports the library's summer reading program. 

She said she contacted McDonald's to confirm its 50 McDonald's bookmarks to be distributed with children with library memberships.

"When I called to confirm, they said there was a contest we could enter to have Ronald McDonald come to the library," Blackledge said.

Blackledge said 177 children have read over the summer, an increase in 102 from last year.

"The enthusiasm the library shows for programming is valuable," Blackledge said.

Furthermore, Blackledge promoted the support that North Penn School District shows North Wales and Lansdale libraries.

"Everything is here for children to keep their skills up," Blackledge said.

Stacey Morettini, curriculum supervisor for reading and language arts in the district, was on hand to witness Ronald's presentation.

"We work together to encourage reading in the district," Morettini said. "Whatever we can do to promote reading to students ends up being a fabulous message to send to families."

Ronald said he was headed to Newark, DE next with his Book Time presentation.

"The idea was to have fun and to bring some money from Ronald McDonald Children's Charities to help with library needs," he said.