Well the year is over and we are all ready for a break.

Looking back over the year I have had the chance to work with some really great people. Kieth and Jen in the SLiCE office at CSu were wonderful, not only for helping the book club get their grant, but because they were always upbeat and excited about working with the program even when they were super busy with other projects.

The person I will remember most though is Sonrda Merk from the Loveland Center for Adult Learning. Her motor never stops and she radiates enthusiasm at all times. Sometimes that got us into trouble, like when we signed up 100 extra people for the book club and had to scramble to find extra money, but it worked out in the long run. She had great involvement with book club members at her site and was incredible to work with. Thanks Sondra for making this a great year!

I want to thank everyone who was part ofthe book club this year. I hope you enjoyed your books and the tiem you spent reading them with others. Happy summer!

My apologies for the long gap in blog postings. things have been very busy and i just haven't made enough time to blog. We have had a lot go on in the time since i lasat posted. Books have been selected and ordered, and we are getting ready for our first literacy evening! The excitement about the book club has been enormous, we have over 300 people reading and sharing books. Laura Resau and Kathleen Pelley have been gracious enough to be our special guest authors and have put together presentations that will be a lot of fun for all ages.

Over the course of the year I have had the privilege of meeting and working with some very good people. Tova Aragon from the Poudre River Public Library has been wonderfully helpful by helping to get all the books ordered and providing additional funds when we went over budget. Keith Colton and the rest of the SLiCE staff have been supportive of the program the whole year long and are always coming up with new ideas and solutions to the challenges that arose.

I especially want to thank Margie Wagner and Sondra Merk who have been my main contacts at Front Range Community College and the CAL office in Loveland. The excitement the two of them have for literacy infectious. The energy they have put into this program reflects in the community interest for the book club and also inspires the people working on the program.

That's an ominous title don't you think?

Well not having any funding for the program this year was a big surprise, and I honestly might not have been so happy to join up if I knew that would be the case. But I also didn't know anything about writing a grant and after working with Tobi on the Praxis grant I feel like I understand it a little bit better, AND since our grant was approved we can have a program this year. So that was actually a blessing in disguise twice.

I wish I would have known how fast this semester would have gone. It feels like just yesterday I was digging through files in the office getting acquiainted with the program and now here we are ready to put up posters and advertise for the spring. reading the books for the program has been my favorite part of the project so far, but I am really looking forward to working with Book Club members this spring and getting to know all the site members that we will work with.

Ok well not really, but it is close and Praxis sent us a big treat! The grant proposal for the Intergenerational Literacy Program has been approved. Talk about a huge relief. My fingers had been starting to cramp from keeping them crossed for so long. We have our first meeting this tuesday and after that I should have a pretty clear direction to go in with our community partners. Aggie Village and ELTC sound like they're going to be great people to work with.

Of course now that we've got funding we need to get books picked (Can't have an intergenerational book club without books). Fortunately bed time stories are a big deal at our house and we've gotten through a stack of children's books already. Inventor Mcgregor seems to be the favorite right now, but we're reading Arnie the Doughnut tonight, so we'll see how it goes.

That's all for now.

33...34... Yeah wow it's been 35 days already. I can't believe a whole month has gone by so far. Well, time flies.

The bulk of my time has been spent sifting through the files and notebooks in the office getting a better ideas of where things are and how it is organized. I've made friends with the coffee pot and I think we are going to become extremely well acquainted as the year goes on. Speaking of well acquainted, this is my first blog ever. Who knew I should be practicing this instead of doing homework as an undergrad?

Rooting around in files and folders has been helpful to see what has been done in the past years and I am getting a better grasp on what the IGLP looks like. I am excited to try and get together local authors this year. I am hoping we might be able to host book discussions in a physical location this year, and have been working with Keith Colton in the SLiCE office to try and secure funding for our project. 

Keith was incredibly helpful as I wrestled with getting my praxis application together. Hopefully my application will get approved and I can keep working on the book club, so I can get a big pile of books to "research." Tobi suggested that I get a bibliography of local writers started and that is on my list of things to work on for next week.