Peace ... Love ... Books

The Great Bend Public Library’s 2023 Summer Reading Program has a groovy playlist of programs with a musical theme. Taking a line from the Beatles song, “All You Need is Love,” the theme this year is “All Together Now.”

With tie-dyed T-shirts and other reminders of the 1960s and 1970s, the library was the scene of a modern musical program on Wednesday, when Jammin’ Randy Sauer from Hays was the featured entertainer.

Sauer teaches band at WaKeeney but he previously taught band in Hoisington for four years. Great Bend’s Joe Boley, a former school band instructor himself, attended the program and visited with Sauer before the show.

“He told me he has 42 bookings this summer,” Boley said. In addition to being a fellow music instructor, Boley said he became acquainted with Sauer when they both played in the Barton County Kix Band.

As Jammin’ Randy (jamminrandy.com), Sauer and his music can be found on Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Spotify and iTunes.

His summer reading program this year is called, “Be Kind,” and features the songs “Cool to Be Kind” and “Be Kind, You Can’t Rewind,” as well as songs about empathy, feelings and happiness (as well as coping with frustration).

“This theme is very close to my heart,” he wrote on his website. “I have been working on spreading kindness for many years as both a children’s songwriter and a music teacher. I am excited to perform this show for summer library programs.” 

123 Andres

The library’s summer of musical programs continues Thursday, June 8, with the Grammy-winning duo 123 Andres at 10:30 a.m. They promise to get the whole family dancing and learning in Spanish and English.

See today’s Book Nook column in the Great Bend Tribune for more news about what’s going on at the library.