I seem to have missed out talking about the Dewey Donation - so I'm going to fix that. Some fabulous people on the web have joined forces to create this super easy way to help libraries. (The site has a really cool description of the birth of the idea and such, so I won't rehash it all here). As you may know in this day and age where government funds are increasingly spread out over more and more things, libraries often suffer. After all they already have books. So, many libraries do not have the funds to buy all the books they would like to make available to their patrons. So they have sales and other fundraisers to try and do that. Or they ask lovely people to donate books. Dewey Donation targeted as their pick for 2006 the Harrison County libraries. These libraries are on the gulf coast of Mississippi, and as you all know wind and rain are not kind to books. Some of the libraries experienced partial damage, two experienced total collection loss.
So, the libraries have created wishlists on Amazon (find the links on Dewey Donation) and you may choose to select books to send to them. As you may know, Amazon offers free shipping for purchases over twenty five dollars, so depending on how much you decide to get, you could get free shipping - and they will of course ship it straight to the library for you. Or, you may choose to send cash to the library(ies) to use for whatever needs they have.
So, now to the reason for the tear alert. The big push started in July (but you can still help). Sharon, on of the librarians has sent a lovely thank you letter (it's on that first page) talking about how great it was to help a teen who was looking for some books that had recently been donated. (See if you can get through the whole letter without feeling mushy.)
