My love of the library goes back many years. It started when I paid my way through college by working at the KCK Public Library. Then I volunteered at the Gardner branch of the Johnson County Library, and recently I served two terms as a member of the Friends of the Johnson County Library Board of Directors. Beginning this January, I will be serving on the Board of the Library’s Foundation.
Ironically, as I was planning to write this, I saw a lady reading a book, and someone walked by her and said, “I saw that movie.” Her response was, “Books are better,” and she encapsulated why I give in one succinct phrase.
It is so important that books are available to everyone in the community. Multiple, uncensored sources of information and points of view are essential, especially in our world today. Books educate us, expand our world and ideas, and bring us so much joy. I cannot imagine a world without all that books and reading have brought to me and others.
That is why the work of the Foundation is so important. It supports early literacy initiatives and service programs that are dedicated to the library and are intended to benefit all ages and interests in our community. It is so fulfilling to give to a cause that does so much good and that I believe in so passionately.
As for what I’m reading, I just finished reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and now I’m reading Horse by Geraldine Brooks.