Cumulative Point Value = 10,864

I wonder that what equals to in the number of pages read

The following post is part of a Seed Pod collaboration about libraries. Seed Pods are a SmallStack community project designed to help smaller publications lift each other up by publishing and cross-promoting around a common theme. We’re helping each other plant the seeds for growth!

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one more fundraiser

Unearthed, Save the Cat!, The Solace of Open Spaces, Thistlefoot, What Are People For?, Hannah Coulter, The Anchored World, Last Night in Twisted River

On the thirteenth Friday, the final Friday, I do not sit at the table with chairs for eight in the fiction section. A small cove beginning with Mark Greaney’s, Agent in Place and ending with James Patterson’s, Three Women Disappear.  I hold no marker borrowed from the children’s marker bin, nor a pen, lined paper, or calculator. I do send a note to the librarian, “I am not going to pick up the binders today—maybe Wednesday. That way if there are any, ‘Ohhh, I forgot.’”

Tuesday is always a busy day at the library. And the extra day to write titles on the participation pages for patrons who would forget Saturday was the final day of the three-month summer read program is the right thing to do. There exists joy in hearing patrons ask for their worksheets to write the name of the most recently read book. This possible because a donor pledged $10,000. A gift, to be sure, but one blended with input of readers who accumulate points for books read. Books have value. This summer, books borrowed from the library shelves are worth 3 points, loans from the online consortium worth 2 points, or personal purchase books worth 1 point.

Our librarian, in her always upbeat way replied, “Okay! Thank you. Sheila was just in and said your scones were delicious!” Homemade blueberry scones with blueberry basil jam were the prize for last week’s reader winner. Many weeks there is a drawing—an encouragement of sorts but really quite random.

Under the Sky We Make, Go Set a Watchman, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs, The Quickening, The Woods for the Trees

In the Trustee Meeting, it was noted that the bake sale raised $226. The annual yard sale yielded $150 from six registered participants but only five showed up. The sixth person did not ask for a refund. The annual book sale raised $1,100.

My Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, All the Little Live Things, The Pine Barrens, Wish You Were Here, Ecotopia, An Unspoken Hunger, The Light Eaters

Once the former President of the Trustee Board told me that the library was only insulated because of the books lining the walls. That was before a serious capital campaign to renovate to the white two-story building with big columns at the front entrance door.  The building is an iconic face to an old village chartered in 1779. The gazebo is topped with solar panels. A number of services and resources support the far-ranging demographics of the residents: children’s programs, tax assistance, internet service, homeschool resources, computer access, and community programs like chair yoga. This, in addition to the ability to borrow books and movies—nearly 20,000 in 2023.

In a state proud of its number of libraries, funding is problematic. Over half of the library operating budget relies on donations. This makes me sad but also delighted because the patrons of the library, they read all summer. Their gifts of reading words and turning pages might otherwise be unacknowledged. But this action, the most supportive giving of young and old totaled 3,053 books in three months. That averages to 11.69 books per participant in the challenge to gain 10,000 points.

Last night I tallied last week’s reads. My calculator adds the slashes made on lined paper—cumulative point value = 10,864. Learning is reading and this summer’s reading is worth a $10,000 donation.

word count: approximately 600

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