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May 25, 2024: Rhett the Red Tailed Hawk

“There’s no money in giving away free books.” This is what we’ve been told by Mike Walsh of the Foraker Group. I am now beginning to see what he means. We have given away thousands, literally thousands of books, and the investment return on our time and money has been minimal. You’d think that those who attend our carefully planned events would, after, cough up a few bucks, but it rarely happens.

Walsh added that the money to support projects like ours takes the form of grants. Furthermore, we are not going to get money so that we can keep giving away books. He said that we have to redouble our literacy efforts. At the time he said this, last February, I was resistant. I was no less resistant when Tracy at the Mat-Su Health Foundation said the same thing.

I did see what the pair were both getting at when I saw that the amount of money generated by in-kind donations was minimal. Maybe, I thought, just maybe, we should focus more on our literacy efforts.


Shannon and Rhett Butler from WildBird Rehab Center


Pete thought similarly. To this end, we continued with our literacy-related outreach. Pam Huyck and I attended the Science of Reading Symposium and both talked extensively with educators about what we were doing. A few of us attended last week’s Reading Rendezvous in Anchorage. Well, that was a bit of a feeding frenzy, with no time really to explain to people that we are developing a literacy focus. We also organized several events, including two Dr. Seuss Days, a D is for Dog Day, an Open Mic Reading, and today’s H is for Hawk day.

I had come to the conclusion that we are not going to be moving out of the Banquet Room of the Historic Eagle Hotel any time soon – so rather than continue to tell people that we are going to build a literacy center and from there have programs, instead say that the place we inhabit IS our literacy center.

From here, I am telling people, we will do outreach and at events have a literacy component. And we will get programs going in our existent space. Today we did the latter.

The day began with children entering the former banquet room at 11:30 a.m. They looked around, saw the books, and the matted frame illustrations that Cathy Stone and I had put together. I showed them the paper airplane airport, and said if they liked, they could make and fly planes. Instead, they gravitated in the direction of the boxes of books that I’d placed on the floor. An astute mother picked up a book and began reading it to the children in attendance. One child exclaimed “This is just like school!” to which I said, “but more fun.”

The children gravitated in the direction of the airport, and here the fun began. BLBP Board President Robert Wallis and I had come up with a prototype paper airplane yesterday and tried it out in the parking lot. We had these, and several others on hand – some children decorated them. Others made additional planes. Finally, they took them outside. A few took the paper airplane how to books and made their own. This, consulting the book, I thought, is literacy.

Robert was in his element as he showed the children how to toss the planes. Other children joined the existent children. Soon, children and planes were everywhere.

I had Pam host a children’s story time when interest ran low. Approximately a dozen children remained rapt as she read from a big book, acquired from the Mat-Su School District Warehouse. Shortly thereafter, Nancy, a presenter/volunteer from the Alaska WildBird Rehabilitation Center appeared in the doorway. The parents and children rearranged the chairs, and listened as she gave a quiz about hawks, the first question being, “How far away can a hawk see its prey?” The answer, provided by a pre-teen, is 100 feet. I had put several boxes of bird books on the table and began passing them around. Parents and children, together, looked at the brightly colored raptor illustrations. Literacy, I thought.

Shannon, who is the head bird person at the Center, appeared in the doorway with a large crate. Heads turned in her direction as she set the crate on a BLBP book table, then talked some about the good work that the Alaska Raptor Center does, year around. Finally, it was time. Shannon donned a leather glove and opened the crate door. The hawk, Rhett Butler, stepped onto her gloved arm and she lifted him to her side.

The lights had been dimmed. The children remained quiet as Nancy and Shannon provided information about Rhett, the rehabilitation center, and the Hawk Migration, which takes place March – May every year. And of course, everyone was encouraged to come and participate in the count.

Dozens of questions followed. Me, I asked several myself.

When finally, there were no more questions, Shannon put Rhett back in his crate.

As she did so, I had this distinct sense that we had been honoring the BLBP mission statement, “Envisioning the power of literacy to change lives,” and would continue to do so.

Next: 145. 5/26/24: Spring Rains

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