For years, Bookmans in Flagstaff has supported our local National Public Radio station KNAU, and this year is no different. The pledge runs through April 1st, and we have six volunteers committed to answer phones. Even without a store, we plan to maintain a partnership, and helping with the pledge drive is one way of staying connected. According to Ben Williams, our electronics supervisor, he always enjoys the pledge drive because “all the people who call are really nice, good people” and “they always give us good food, like the strawberry and avocado salad we got yesterday.” But speaking seriously, he claims “it would be hard to imagine media in this country without National Public Radio; it’s an invaluable source of news.”

According to Alex Gilman, it wasn’t too crazy-busy answering the phones, but they still exceeded their goal yesterday of $1000 per hour. He says they raised over $4000 in less than the first three hours. Ben and Alex also said our book supervisor for over seventeen years, Matt Christiansen, knew about half the people who called. Matt even took pledge calls from two ex-Bookmans employees, one of whom used to have his job! Both Alex and Ben report everyone they spoke with was really concerned about Bookmans and wanted to be reassured we will reopen this fall. Apparently, their need to answer that same question many times became a bit of a joke in the phone room, since they were streamlining their response all day. For the rest of us, it was just great to hear how much we’re missed!

To learn more about the Spring Pledge Drive and see pictures of Bookmans volunteers, go to KNAU’s Facebook page or website