LYNN – Vanessa Owens-Finch opened a copy of “Guess Who?s Coming, Jesse Bear?” and followed the main character?s progress through learning the days of the week even as she reinforced the reading skills she honed as a Connery School first-grader.Owens-Finch is one of 180 Lynn public school students attending the Greater Lynn YMCA?s School?s Out program with its emphasis on having fun and reading daily. The Neptune Boulevard program is one of five summer activity and reading programs sponsored in Lynn by local youth agencies with help from the United Way.YMCA Senior Director for After School Programs Tania Buck-Ruffen said the summer literacy program makes sure students like Owens-Finch keep a firm grip during the summer on the reading skills they learned in kindergarten or first grade.?We?re getting these kids before the age of 8 – it?s critical to make sure they are reading at level,” Buck-Ruffen said.Every time Owens-Finch and other students finish a book, literacy program director Kendra Owens helps them place a cardboard cutout of a fish or other sea creature on an ocean mural stretching along the hallway outside the YMCA activity rooms.Buck-Ruffen said many of the children participating in the YMCA literacy program arrive at the Y on summer weekdays in the morning and leave in late afternoon. Buck-Ruffen and Owens fill their days with play activities, including outdoor play, lunch, and then “they drop everything and read,” Owens said.The schedule varies from day to day.?It?s a long day so we change things up so they?re not bored. We try to make sure it?s fun,” she said.United Way also promotes summer learning locally with Girls Inc., Gregg Neighborhood House, Camp Fire Boys and Girls of the North Shore, and the Boys and Girls Club. With help from Target Corporation, money spent by United Way on learning programs includes $85,000 invested in Lynn alone.More than three out of four students who read during the summer return to school in the fall with their skills intact and increase their interest in reading, according to a United Way statement.?If you lose these kids, it?s harder to get them back,” Buck-Ruffen said.Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].