Bookmobile News

Wow, what a gift!  Thanks to an introduction by our good friend Ed Buonaccorsi of the city of Santa Rosa, we were able to get together with Tomas Tomas, Inc President Tom Sawyer and make good things happen.  Tomas Tomas (tomastomas.org) builds libraries for children in Mexico in a way that deeply involves the local residents.  Tom had already collected a sizable cache of books for his next project when he was forced to change methods of getting books to the library.  This allowed him to offer the Free Bookmobile nearly 3,000 titles, mostly for children, and all in Spanish!

We had been struggling to find books en español for the Latino families we serve – this fits the bill wonderfully.  Huge thanks to Tom and to Matthew Gollub of Tortuga Press (tortugapress.com), one of his partners who supplied 1,000 copies of the beautiful picture book “Tío Culebra”.  We now have a big shelf in the new vehicle dedicated to Spanish titles, available now wherever we set anchor and throw open the doors…

Always happy to do our part, the Free Bookmobile is ready to put any holiday gifts you may not need or want to good use.  Rather than store them, re-gift them to us!  We will use them in a raffle or silent auction to generate needed funds for operation of the Bookmobile, and to help our parent organization, the Literary Arts Guild.  Gift certificates or gift cards are great, as are any other new items with ‘curb appeal’  :)

This is also a terrific chance to see the new Free Bookmobile in action, and to come aboard and select a book for yourself.  The party will be held in front of the Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa on Sunday, January 23rd from 1 – 3:30 Pm.  Just park in the main lot off 2060 West College Avenue and walk over to the Bookmobile on the building’s front entrance circular driveway.  We look forward to meeting you and giving you the tour of our new shelves!

The Press Democrat ran a very nice story about us on the cover of their January 1 print edition Empire section.  In this case the main photo was worth more than 1,000 words: Edgerrin Weaver was carrying a box of Spanish-language books that must have cumulatively comprised millions of words!  In fact there were three photos, including one of the fabled rig itself, which should help folks find us in their favorite Sonoma County town.

The article detailed the acquisition of our new vehicle, the Free Bookmobile philosophy, and explained how the public can help with donations.  The online version can be found here:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20101231/ARTICLES/101239920