This past week has been a blur of activities for the Bookmans Flagstaff crew. Since we don't have our usual location (our store!) for community events, we've been taking the same activities that we would normally sponsor out into the community! One of our weekly events is storytime, so the Knoles Elementary School librarian, Mary Lara, needed some people to help with their Book Fair, which we thought would be a great opportunity to continue our weekly story time. We also normally host an animal adoption event each week, and so Second Chance Center for Animals welcomed us into their orientation and behavior classes so we could start helping out there. Our first week sans our store was full of kids and puppies!

The Second Chance Center for Animals is the nicest animal shelter I've ever been in. Their commitment to animal welfare is amazing. Their facility is clean and roomy. The cats even had outdoor areas to explore! Second Chance is committed to bringing animals and people together. They have all the volunteers pass an “Open Paws” exam before they are allowed to work with the animals. This is to ensure the safety of both animal and human. It also helps maintain the positive behavior standards (again, both animal and human) that Second Chance has created. They want their animals to be adopted so they provide every possible opportunity to their animals that they can. All their animals are vaccinated and “fixed”. The dogs are “loose leash” trained (some are better than others) and “crate trained” (again, some better than others) with the hopes that the pups are ready to go home. Personality has a lot to do with the adoption process. Second Chance provides spaces for you and your family (kids and other pets) to see if the personalities fit together. There is a clinic on-site with vet staff. Second Chance also provides inexpensive vaccines for your pet along with spay and neuter procedures. While cleaning up after animals may not be glamorous, working with the animals makes it worth it. During our “loose leash” training session we all enjoyed walking up and down the kennel aisle with our puppy trainers. Up and back, up and back, rewarding our student/teacher with a treat when he turned or stopped or kept walking. The puppies were so happy and we were happy that they were happy. It was a giant love fest, with treats! I think we were almost more excited to give the treats then the puppies were to get them! I will be shocked if one or two Bookmans households don't have a new member by the time we reopen.

On the kids side of things, we have also been having fun at Knoles Elementary School. We've been helping out at their Scholastic Book Fair. We spend a lot of time reminiscing about the Book Fairs in our pasts. The reactions that we all had when we were kids, “Woah, what is this? I want it!” It's good to know that the reactions have not changed much. They have a wonderful selection of books and novelty pencils, pens, pencil sharpeners, erasers and squishy things to entice and amaze children of all ages (including our Bookmans Outreach Team!). When not actively employed in the running of the Book Fair, our crew is habitually straightening the books and reshelving them and, in general, being happily distracted by books once more. Nick was highly amused by The Ugly Guide to the Ugly Verse book. I found several cookbooks to drool over and a gag gift for a colleague. Regina was frustrated by the invisible ink pen and excited about Elephant and Piggie books. Pepe (our Kids Room Guru) was re-released into his native habitat. The Knoles Library has several amphibious occupants that need mentioning. Sally the Salamander is in a heated contest with Yertle the Turtle for “Most Awesome” (by Bookmans Crew Poll only) but the Fire Belly Toads (Merveille and Esmerelda) and the frustratingly perpetual Tadpoles (un-named) are pretty sweet too. Regina got to read to a kindergarten class and I got to read to some very amusing second graders. I find that when left to their own devices, kids are pretty darn funny, especially when they are not trying.

That's the news form Lake Wobegon... umm, I mean Flagstaff. Where all the Bookmans are roofless, the staff rested and the community outreach is above average.

For more pictures of our adventures, check out Flickr.