Things are dropping into my lap out of the blue. Good things. I love it when this happens—and if you’ve ever had a series of nice things happen to you, you’ll know what I mean. So during this season of love and brotherhood and giving, my next few Library Lines are going to focus on all these good things that are happening to us right now. Let’s call them little Christmas miracles. A couple of weeks ago, a gentleman came into my office at McClintic Library and said he was from the Lions Club, and that they had $100 to donate for new audio books. I was thrilled! Now, the Lions Club has been around since 1917, when a man by the name of Melvin Jones wondered why local business clubs couldn’t expand their horizons a bit, and focus on the betterment of their communities rather than just business concerns. Good question! And so the Lions Club was born and quickly grew to be an international organization. You may have noticed that their major focus is sight conservation, a goal that was set after Helen Keller gave a speech to the Lions in 1925, challenging them to become “Knights of the Blind.” They took up that challenge and today work to help those with vision problems. This is why they wanted to purchase audio books; in the past, the local Lions Club has generously donated money for McClintic to purchase children’s books in Braille. So this isn’t the first contribution to the library by the Lions Club, but it’s still an exciting one. So after a bit of conversation, I mentioned that this past summer I had several families who were looking for audio books that would be appropriate for the entire family; this is how I noticed a huge gap in my audio book collection. I asked if I could use the $100 for children’s audio books, and got a very emphatic “Yes.” What fun – selecting and ordering titles that the whole family will enjoy. I chose the classics: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis; Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie and Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder; the Amelia Bedelia collection by Peggy Parish; The Boxcar Children, by Gertrude Chandler Warner, and more. Actually, I went over my $100 by 58 cents, but the Lions are gracious, and covered my overage. Whew! The audios should arrive this week, and I will get them cataloged and on the shelf as soon as possible. I’m so grateful to our local Lions Club for this generous gift. Not only do audio books help those with vision problems, but they can also help children improve their reading skills by listening to the audio and reading along. If you would like to know more about the Lions Club, they have an excellent website at www.lionsclub.org where I discovered the history I included here.
