Monthly Archives: August 2008

Charitable Summer Reading

Donations?

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The past two summers, I’ve sent out emails to friends and family members, asking for people to sponsor my summer reading and make a donation to the library’s summer charity.  I didn’t do that this year, though, partly because it seems gauche to constantly hit up the people I most care about for money, and partly because, well, times are tough and I know that most people are struggling financially these days.

So this year I’m just publishing a general call for donations.  The summer reading charity this year is the World Wildlife Fund, and we will be donating money to sponsor either a manatee, a mountain gorilla, or a polar bear.  The kids in town who are participating in the summer reading program have been voting for their choice of animal (1 vote for every 1 hour of reading), and so far the race is too close to call.  (The library donation to the World Wildlife Fund is generously donated by the Friends of the library.)

I have been keeping track of my reading hours, too, and am currently at 20 1/2 hours.  My goal is to reach 30 hours total.  I have made a personal pledge of 2 dollars for every hour that I read, so if I am able to reach my goal I will make a donation of $60.00 to the World Wildlife Fund, which will be in addition to the money donated by the Friends of the library. 

If anyone would like to make a pledge and sponsor my reading, that would be wonderful.  You needn’t even donate through me or the library; if you feel inclined to make a donation on your own to the World Wildlife Fund, and simply leave a comment here saying that you have done so, that would be terrific too.  Thank you so much for any and all support!!

Library events

Shocked the monkey

I’ve been waiting to write this post until Lisa emails me the photo of Coco and me, but Lisa is on vacation next week, and it’s looking like it will be a while until the photo arrives, so…

Last week the library hosted a terrific show, Hurdy Gurdy, Monkey and Me, with Tony Lupo and Coco the Capuchin monkey.  Tony and Coco are both true professionals, and the show was SO much fun – Lisa and Alyson and I laughed our heads off in the back of the room, and the packed house of kids and parents obviously had a great time, too.

After the show was over, Tony invites kids to come up and have their photo taken with him and Coco (Tony stands between the child and Coco, of course, for Coco’s safety and sanity).  Lisa had brought her camera with her, but we decided that we should hang back and wait for all the children and their parents to get their photos taken before we went up to get ours.

But we waited too long.  Just as Lisa and Alyson and I sidled our way up to the stage, Tony signaled to Coco that the show was over, they were done, time to pack up.

“Oh, wait!” I said, “Can we get our photos taken?  We were waiting until all the children were done…”

“Sure,” said Tony, and he started to refasten Coco’s leash onto her tiny collar.

Coco looked at me with pure, unadulterated hatred, and started to scream her little monkey head off while waggling her tongue out at me.

“Ummm…that’s ok…we can skip the photo,” I said, with more than a little fear.

“No, no, no,” replied Tony, “it’s ok.  She just thought we were done, but it’s ok.”

Coco stopped screaming, but she still shot eye daggers at me.  The photos that Lisa took are evidence of Coco’s hatred of the librarian who  1) couldn’t manage to throw the ball well to Coco earlier in the show – ten feet off target for one throw, and 2) interrupted Coco’s happy routine of being done with work and getting to settle in for a nice nap in her wheeled carrier. 

When Jim heard the story later that night, he grinned devilishly and said, “Ah, you shocked the monkey.”

(But thanks to Tony and Coco for the absolute best show of the summer.  It was a blast, and maybe when I meet Coco again in the spring I can win her over…we’ll see!)