Tomorrow is our biggest fundraiser for our little Friends of the Ten Sleep Library group… the Harvest Dinner. We have a great bunch of ladies and one generous and kind gentleman in our Friends. We work hard to have fundraisers, and even though we are not a rich county nor town, we feel well supported by our community to the best of its ability. We raise money through this Harvest Dinner, and book sales (also in progress), donations and memorials, our Festival of Trees entry, and a Christmas Silent Auction. We also have an account through Amazon Smile, so part of the price of your purchase actually can come to us! In return, we sponsor events, the summer reading program, and buy materials for the library. Sure, we’d love a new library… but, practical as we are here in Wyoming, we simply hope for an addition at some point in the future.
Repeatedly, however, we cross paths with those who scoff at libraries… at their “fading role in today’s Wikipedia society”. Who needs libraries anymore? Oh, I have answers for that! Ebooks haven’t created the end of a paper book, just like escalators haven’t done away with stairs. While you might have an iPad or a Kindle, your neighbor may not. I’ve seen plenty of grade schoolers with Kindles, but I have seen many, many more without. Libraries don’t care who you are, come in and we will help you (no matter your color, age, race, ability, or belief) find what you need… online, in a book or audio or ebook, through mind blowing databases that encompass research, genealogy, medicine, and education. We are not what we used to be.
So, tomorrow, surrounded by the caring people of Ten Sleep, we will share the gate monies with the Ten Sleep Ambulance, and have a great raffle and live auction with funds going straight to the Friends. I encourage you to come, but if you can’t make it… please attend the next function that your local library is sponsoring.
And then…
if you would…
please read this link.
Neil Gaiman, author, wrote this two years ago… but I just found it and it struck a chord for me tonight. Now I rarely ask that you follow a link and leave my page (!) but tonight I am. This is important to me, and I imagine that it will be important for you READERS as well. Then, if you find it does touch your heart, I would also ask that you share this post and the link. I don’t often ask for you to do that either, although I’d love it if you shared each and every one of my blog entries, I’ll be very happy if you share just this one.
I sincerely believe in the Ripple Effect, that touching the still surface of knowledge can send waves unseen in all directions. Somewhere, somehow, perhaps someone will benefit from my little blog and Neil Gaiman’s wisdom.
Please, support your local library.
Find me here!
I agree highly with the link. Thank you for sharing and I am going to share also
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero
This is so true.
Thanks again your Wisconsin fan.
What an inspiring blog and link. Yes I have a Kndle but it is not the same as holding a book. Books are all different, the cover colours, the paper texture, the print size, the size of the book. A Kindle is just a Kindle and yes very useful when travelling and needing lots of books. I did get to my local library and met two senior ladies who now have a friend drive them to the library as sadly their mobile library van has stopped running. I came away with no books this time but enjoyed a hot chocolate in the cafe.