Library staff at the Florence Bessac Branch of the Stanislaus County Library in Riverbank cleaned out its craft drawers, making the wide varsity of materials available to entrants in the library’s “Worst Art” contest this past week.

Branch Supervisor Victoria Holt opened up the community room in the building to students of all ages to compete on Wednesday afternoon, June 21, with little restriction on what could be built.

After about half an hour’s work, entries were numbered and the budding artists took up ballots to vote for the ‘worst.’ More than 10 entries made it to the judging table.

Glitter, colored pencils, glue, tape, stickers, colored paper, crayons, pipe cleaners, even empty Pringles potato chip canisters were used to build a handmade art entry.

After the artists’ votes were tallied, 10-year-old Hector Carreno was named the winner. He’ll be entering the fourth grade at California Avenue School in August.

Ironically, the voting showed that his younger sister, Maria, received the second-most votes. She’s four-years-old and will be entering kindergarten in the coming year.

The program is just one of many tailored for students that are out of school for the summer, and is expected to help trigger an interest in reading in the participants.

For more information on the summer programs, Holt can be reached at 869-7008. The library branch is at 3442 Santa Fe St., on the corner of Fifth and Santa Fe.

The Riverbank Branch of the Stanislaus County Library is named after Florence Bessac, a former owner, editor and publisher of The Riverbank News.

Open hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. The branch is closed on Sundays.