Different Kinds of Book Festivals

Hello all! I have just returned from Denver Colorado, where I got to spend a lovely few days while accompanying Carrie on a book tour event. Have you ever been to Denver? I had never been there before and I must tell you, it was not what I expected. Among many other things, it was much more beautiful than I imagined. I have known, for as long as I can remember, that Denver is known as the “Mile High City.” What this meant to me, sadly, was based mostly upon what I had gleaned from the television, watching football games. I knew that the altitude made the air a bit different, thinner, some say, and that it affects people, even highly trained professional athletes. Indeed, I found this to be true, the air is definitely different in Denver!
 
I won’t bore you with all of the differences that I noted, and mostly attributed to the difference in atmosphere, but other than the occasional shortness of breath, they were all positive and beautifully intriguing to me. I am not trying to sell anyone on Denver, Colorado here, because we too live in an extremely beautiful part of the country and, for the most part, I like our air better! What I am trying to do is establish an excuse for not having a Presidential Message prepared for you that is full of some arcane wisdom (I say arcane because my “wisdom” is probably understood by nobody other than myself). So, I looked it up on the internet, and found that some people actually suffer a moderate amount of sickness when they go to places with an altitude such as Denver’s. I didn’t really feel as if I experienced anything that dramatic, but, it makes a good excuse for my less than command performance in this message.
 
Now, having gotten you to read two paragraphs of rambling, I shall get to work. While in Denver, I attended a book festival, not unlike the Bar Harbor Kids Book Festival (other than being quite a bit larger due to the vast population difference) and made two observations which made me proud of you Rotarians and some non-Rotarian members of our community.
 
Number one, this book festival was sponsored and presented by a local bookstore, which has four retail outlets in the Denver area. The festival, like any not for profit venture, was staffed mainly by volunteers. However, the majority of the volunteers at this event were mostly employees of the sponsoring bookstore. Sure, they probably were not getting paid, and sure, they probably sacrificed a day and a half away from their families, but I was still struck by the difference of there and here. Most of the volunteers for the Bar Harbor Kids Book Festival are made up of either Rotarians or Interact Club members who have no reason (such as feeling committed to help their boss) to help with this event other than the goodness of their heart and the civic mindedness of their being.
 
Number two, we have no large bookstore running the show. By this, I mean that we have to find somebody to procure books written by the authors who are participating in the Bar Harbor Kids Book Festival so that we can sell them during the event and hopefully generate a bit of money to put back into the community in a literacy increasing way. Our local bookstore, Sherman’s, has stepped up and is doing vast amounts of work, ordering, receiving and then returning unsold works, for no profit of their own. This is only one of the examples of local community business and more importantly, individuals, stepping up and providing time, labor and materials at either no cost or very reduced cost so that we can make this event a success.
 
Why do we do this? Why do people or businesses (which are really just larger groups of people) go out of their way to help with a community-oriented project like this? They will be receiving little in return. Sure, they will receive our undying gratitude and will be mentioned over and over again, as often as we can, as sponsors for the Festival. But really, how much does that benefit them in turns of increased business, recognition or profit? I don’t know the answers to my questions, maybe it is just the air around here, but I know that it makes me happy to see people do wonderful things for others. So, thanks to all of you who are helping with the Bar Harbor Kids Book Festival and thanks to all of you who help in any way you can and most importantly, thanks for being a Rotarian!
 
Thank you,  
Shaun