Here's my smile for the week.

One day a small, attractive, older woman came into the library. She told me with a heavy accent that she just LOVES the library, since thanks to us she learned to speak English! She would get books on tape and listen to them over and over again until she understood the words. Then she would come back for more.

"That's great!" I said. "How long ago was that?"

"Oh, almost twenty years ago, when I came to America from Poland when I was 62."
I about fell over--that meant she was almost 82! I had thought she was in her late sixties at the most.

A little while later she came to the circ desk with an armload of magazines. "I like to keep up on beauty tips," she said.

I decided on the spot, instead of plastic surgery I'll move to a foreign country as a senior citizen.
Her young-at-heart, infectious joy toward life kept me smiling the rest of the day.

Some of you may have heard over the last few weeks that a good number of children's books have been stolen from the Port Orchard branch library. The total number of books was around 1,300 at an estimated worth of $22,000. This is horrible news and for those of you just finding out, it's shocking. But enough bad news - I want to share with you the good news.

We have experienced an outpouring of concern and help from our community and others not residing in our library district. After the story aired on the news and had hit the papers, we here at the Port Orchard branch have received generous donations of children's books from many people in our community. We have had small contributions from the small people who are the biggest users of this collection. (One boy about six or seven wanted to donate his dollar.) And we have had large, emotional donations from concerned families throughout the county, including a $5,000 donation from a family in Poulsbo who saw our story on the news.

We are privileged to have so many great and caring people in our community and those beyond. I would like to say from myself and the Kitsap Regional Library, Thank You! We appreciate all of you. Without your support we could not be a library.