CHANCE ENCOUNTER

Several people are riding on an elevator with me.  I have a teenager, a mother and small child, a mayor, and a philanthropist.  We are on our way up nearing the 4th floor and suddenly hear a loud thump and the elevator  stops and jars us around slightly.  The mother who is holding her child drops the bag she has in her hand and everything falls out including the child's library book.

We all are alarmed but calm and begin to discuss the situation.  We decide that it won't be long until help comes so we all stay relaxed except for the child whom the mother begins to comfort by picking up the dropped library book and starts quietly reading to calm the child.  I notice it and immediately say oh I'm so happy to see you have a library book.  I am a library director. 

The teenager sits down in the corner and declares that since she is stuck she may as well finish her audio book she is listening too. 

The mayor pulls papers from his briefcase and begins working.  The business man in the fancy suit and I are left looking at each other.  He strikes up a conversation with me and says so you are a library director.  How do you like that job?

Oh, I love it I say and then ask him what he does.  He tells me he has been very fortunate in life and owns several large companies and enjoys traveling around helping support causes he thinks are important.  In fact, he says I did give a small donation to a local library once.  I thought maybe they might need to buy some new books or something.  I know they don't need much money cause how hard can it be to hand out books. 

Well, my radar goes off and I smell opportunity. 

I say, "Oh that was very nice of you and I'm sure they appreciated it but libraries are so much more important than books.  He asks why.

I say, "Well, as a successful business man you are very familiar with branding.  I will tell you that my library has one too and it is selling improvement.  We are a comfortable safe place in the community for folks to get free access to the world.  I sometimes call us the living room of the community.

A living room is often the hub of the house with lots of different activities going on.  Think how many folks come to your living room in a year's time.  We are like that.   I point to the mother reading the library book to her child and say yes we have books like that and then I point to the teenager in the corner listening to the audio book on her phone and say now we also have electronic books.    

We also have computers that stay full of people doing all sorts of different things.  It may be the college students doing homework, the unemployed searching and applying for jobs, the children doing their schoolwork, or even the bored teenager who has no where else to go.  A couple of patrons come to mind with the computers.   A mother in her thirties who had gone back to school for nursing used our computers for her homework and testing.  She is now a happily employed nurse working right down the street here in our community.  The young man who spent several months coming in searching for a job who is now able to feed his family without assistance.  These people loved the library and appreciated what it gave them.  It improved them.  It improved their quality of life.  It turn that helped improve our community. 

But we can do more.  We need more.  We operate on a very low budget and often have to tell people that we just can't afford that beginning computer class they ask for or that class on doing a resume.  We need money.  It's that simple. 

We need to be able to help everyone in the community find that job they need.  The only way we can do that is for people like you to join in our mission and donate that much needed money to help us.  Just think one of these people who come to the library to get their college degree online might turn out to be one of the best employees at one of your companies one day.  That's improvement and it can't happen without people like you.  I'm asking for your help to better this community.  Join us in our vision of improvement.  Will you help us?   

Pam's Point:  Not really a point.  Just sharing my elevator speech project.