Day 254 – 2/2/12 – Book Store Talk

Lanesville to New Albany; Distance = 12 Miles; People Met = 8

The day started out with saying goodbye to our hosts Frank and Annetta price.  As Indiana University alums they are big basketball fans, which provided a connection for us UConn fans.  Annetta has flexibility as a CPA and could afford to linger a bit before heading off to work in the morning.  We spoke some more about the virtues of community, a common topic when we stay at anyone’s house.

Annetta Price

Daughter Jordan was still at home when it came time for us to leave.  Jordan is our daughter Charissa’s age with a few similarities.  They both are getting married soon after their coming graduation from college this year.  Both had life changing experiences from going abroad to help out the less fortunate.

Jordan Price

Our New Albany Lions contact Donna Robinson joined us for the last three or so miles of our walk into town.  She and her husband Bill are distant runners; she had no trouble keeping up with our pace.  We talked about New Albany a bit.  Donna has been eager to share with me the community help programs there; more about that in a later post.  One seemingly unimportant comment she made resonated in a big way with me.  Donna mentioned that housing for the less and more fortunate are often in close proximity to one another.

Cindy and Donna Robinson

That reminded me of one of the keys to my home town’s success at building community; people of different socioeconomic status roll up their sleeves together.  When I state in my talks that one of the key ingredients of a community initiative is involving everyone, I encourage people in particular to invite male and female, young and old, and particularly rich and poor into the initiative.

Speaking of talks, I gave my first one in a book store come late afternoon.  The venue was very intimate and engaged.  Donna was apologetic that the audience was not large, but that does not matter to me if people are engaged.  I figure I’ll be speaking, writing and singing about community for years to come.  The amount of people I reach will take care of itself; for any particular moment it’s just nice to know you are connecting.  Many thanks to proprietor Randy Smith of Destinations Booksellers for allowing us the use of his book store.

After the talk Donna and Bill took us out to the Mexican Bar and Grill, accompanied as well by Sara McDaniels and Darryl Bensing (New Albany Lions president) who attended the talk.  Sara shared her experiences going abroad, particularly Romania, to help people obtain glasses.  Ironically she was doing that first, before eventually joining up with the Lions Club.

Bill, Darryl, Sara, Ky, Donna, Cindy, Mexican Bar and Grill waiter

We ended the night at the Holiday Inn Express, compliments of Directors of Sales Mandy Cobb, where we will be staying for three nights as we first hike out of town for one day then take a rest day in New Albany.  Both Randy and Mandy are active in the business and community betterment of New Albany.

Tamara and Sara