When I began working on this project, and inquiring about grant funding, a good number of people told me that I needed to form partnerships with other organizations. I didn’t know anyone to partner up with, and my initial contacts didn’t seem interested. So I rightly figured that I’d muddle along on my own, with the assistance of a few volunteers, with the hope that all would go smoothly.

I met Melina Sevigny in September, at Suzy Cosby’s place. She was doing her weekly stint as a goat milker. I was out watching the baby goats. Pete came out and said that Mike, Suzy’s husband, had just told him that Melina had a program going like ours. I went inside their basement milking parlor and struck up a conversation with Melina. She was

in charge of the First Books Project and getting books out to villages. She immediately said that she was looking to turn her project over to someone like myself.

Now we are partners, working together on both projects. We’ve done two trips to Homer, and today, we did a road trip to Anchorage. We met up at the Meeting House, and there we found the combination on the door lock was froze, and would not open up. We ended up putting the books that I’d been keeping in my cabin down in the entryway to the Alcoholics Anonymous room.

Milena had a contact and we acted upon it. We picked up twenty boxes of kids’ books at the Anchorage library and brought them back to Palmer. We also stopped in the port and there Milena stored books that she was getting ready to send out in a TOTE warehouse.

To Anchorage and back, we talked about the book project and how to keep it going. She said that we’d be able to apply for grants once we get our own 501(c)3; this is sort of a passport that in the eyes of all beholders (and the IRS) will make us appear legitimate. I, with great pride, said that Pete finished the 501(c)3 request this morning. I added that yesterday he finished Part III and then lost the document online.

We talked about publicity, writing grants, and setting up drop boxes that her husband, a welder, will make. I realized, as our discussion continued, that neither one of us spent the time bemoaning the fact that the recycling center turned down the donation. Rather, we talked about ways in which we might continue to move forward.

For me, this is a lesson in remaining flexible. I could easily figure that because the recycling center isn’t backing the Bright Lights Book project, that I should give it up. However, I am, like Milena, of the mind that it will be its own entity, independent of the book source. And if the powers that be say no, you can no longer have our books, I can easily get them from other sources.

Year two of the project – I am beginning to think that it’s going to be one major growth.

Next: 317. 11/16/21: Biting off More than I can Chew