Tiki Levinson and Mary Samson George of Akiachak honored with Contributions to Literacy in Alaska awards
Three-year-old Mikey Testa already had a Rice Krispie bar in his pocket that he won by participating in the Delta Community Library’s programs to get kids interested in reading. And he can’t wait to spin the prize wheel again to win another tasty treat.
Meanwhile, Levinson helps keep Mikey focused on the task.
“How many spins do you have left?” she asked.
“Two!” he said.
“Give it another spin!” Levinson said, in a way that suggested that she was having as much fun as he was.
Mikey spins the prize wheel again, and when it stops, he exclaims “ice cream!”
"Ooh, you got an ice cream Mike! You’re lucky!" said Kat Connor, Mikey's grandma.
"So this is for an ice cream cone at the drive-in!” Levinson added.
Mikey: Mmm!”
The library staff hands out prizes like that almost every day to kids who participate in activities like Storytime and the Summer Reading Program.
Connor, brought Mikey and two other grandkids to the library to rake in their winnings — 10-year-old Reilly and 12-year-old Peter.
“They’ve been involved in the summer program here at the library since it started,” she said, “and it’s excited them, gets them reading, because they’re motivated to pick up the books!”
Connor says the program was especially helpful for Reilly.
“About a year ago,” she said, “we could hardly get her to pick up a book. And now, with this — she read an entire set, a seven-volume set of Junie B. Jones in the last two weeks. She is just so motivated to read! And the program that they do here is just amazing.”
Levinson says she’s glad to hear that feedback. She says her dedication to getting kids interested in reading led to her being hired in 1988 as the Bristol Bay School District librarian, based in the western Alaska village of Naknek.
In 2003, she and her husband moved to Delta Junction after she was hired as Delta-Greely School District librarian. 15 years later, the City of Delta hired her as library director.
“ And so I've been doing these things for a long time and honing my craft at trying to get people interested in reading,” she said.
Because she began her career in school libraries, Levinson was initially focused on younger readers. Since then, she’s also promoted reading programs for the city library’s grownup crowd.
“This year,” she said, “we branched out and worked on a winter reading challenge for adults. And we got a lot of adults excited about reading who had kind of let that go by the wayside and let their electronics take over their life.”
The grownups don’t get to spin the wheel for ice cream or Rice Krispie treats. But Levinson says she’s seeing a lot more enthusiasm from the adults who participate in the reading programs — especially those who, like her, are members of the library’s book club.
“ Lots of people talking about books here at the library and sharing books with each other, and so that was wonderful.”
Alaska Center for the Book board member Carol Sturgulewski says Levinson's experience and enthusiasm served to checkmark all the right boxes to enable her to earn the Contributions to Literacy in Alaska award.
And she said Levinson goes the extra mile for her library patrons.
“Some of what Tiki does is what every librarian does -- you know, they work on summer reading programs and Battle of the Books and what not,” Sturgulewski said. “But she has done this so consistently and so many other innovative things in her career.”
The Alaska Center for the Book was founded in 1991. It’s the Alaska affiliate for the U.S. Library of Congress’s Center for the Book. Since 1993, the Alaska Center has presented more than 115 awards to people and organizations that have significantly contributed to literacy, the literary arts or the preservation of the written word in Alaska.
Sturgulewski says literacy has always been essential – perhaps more now than ever.
“We're celebrating 250 years as a country,” she said. “We need people who are informed. We need people who are educated. We need people who know how to look up information on things that are happening in our country and in our world.”
Levinson and the other 2026 Contributions to Literacy in Alaska award-winner, Mary Samson George of Akiachak, were both honored for their work Sunday evening in a reception at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage.
