Fentress’ Reading In The Park Returns For First Time Since Pandemic

Reading in the Park returns to Fentress County Tuesday night for the first time since the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The program returns to Mark Twain Park with special guest readers, vendors, and activities for kids. Chamber of Commerce Director Of Tourism and Membership Seth Vaughn said it was time to bring the event back to the community after three years.

“We’re really excited about it,” Vaughn said. “There’s tons of people that come out to this event into downtown Jamestown. It really is an event that a lot of kids look forward to, so we hope to make this an annual thing once again.”

The event takes place from 6pm-7pm Tuesday night. The event originally began as a project of the school system and the Chamber of Commerce.

This year’s event is being held in connection with local reading ambassadors with Save the Children.

“The Fentress County Reading Ambassadors with Save the Children have played a large part in pulling all this together,” Vaughn said. “They have been the ones to create the games, create all the activities that are going. They are going to be bringing prizes and stuff like that.”

Vaughn said the Chamber provided advertisement and vendors for the event.

“We try to promote education here in Fentress County,” Vaughn said. “That is one of the big things that the Chamber does. It is one of our big goals and initiatives. Of course reading is very important to be able to further education. We typically try to partner with educational institutions quite often through out the year and this is one of those.”

The Chamber and Save the Children plan to make Reading in the Park an annual event again.

“It just sort of took off,” Vaughn said. “So they’ve had great turn outs before, and we hope to have another great turn out tonight.”