My most vivid childhood memories are of books and reading. I recall my mom staying up reading almost all night long on the weekends and how I spent time at my local library where I would walk down the aisles of my favorite authors, Judy Blume, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, with my head tilted to the right reading the spines and my neck getting sore. I wanted to work at the library so strongly that it just seemed like the perfect job. I never did get a job at my library once I was old enough, but I definitely applied!
Decades later, I have now been involved with the Johnson County Library my entire adult life. Getting my library card with my new Kansas address was one of the very first things I did when I became a resident. Then a few short years later, I began my journey volunteering for JCL.
I started as a Friends of Johnson County Library bookstore volunteer, working at the Blue Valley Library every other Saturday. Then I became a Friends Board member. A few years later, I became a JCL Foundation volunteer once a week, and now I am a JCL Foundation Board member!
The library is my favorite place to donate my time, talents, and treasure because it’s so easy to SEE the impact you can make at your library and the community surrounding it.
JCL’s partnerships with other organizations ensure that we’re reaching the most people and getting the experts in their fields to help.
As parents, Chris and I have fond memories of browsing the children’s floor at Corinth Library and filling up whole tote bags of books to bring home and read together with our daughter, Abi. I shared some of my favorites with her, like The Poky Little Puppy and the Little Red Hen and Ira Sleeps Over, and then we discovered new ones together like The Gruffalo and If Animals Kissed Good Night. Now Abi reads prize-winning novels like The Goldfinch and The Secret History for fun, and I think sharing our love of reading with her was integral to that.
You can help support this kind of family engagement with reading through the Johnson County Library Foundation. Come to Library Lets Loose and have a ball at one of my favorite places, and support lifelong learning and literacy at the same time.