Blog readers beware: What happens in Bernice, no longer stays in Bernice….thanks to the advent of the First Book blog you too can feel as if you are traveling through the northern Louisiana great outdoors with Elizabeth, Tabitha, Kevin and I.

Keep on reading for the story…

A Family Vacation

There are many First Bookers who call the three of us (Kevin, Tabitha, and I) the “triplets”- we have taken the nickname to heart and are calling this week’s adventure a “family vacation”. When I was growing up my family took trips to a variety of historical sites. My brother and I swore that we read every historical placard in a town and knew more about the town’s family than we did our own.

In true family vacation style we (the triplets) wandered off the beaten path and took an abridged self-guided tour of Vicksburg, Mississippi. We stopped at the Visitors Center and heard the shpiel on all the places to see in town. Kevin led us to a Vicksburg jewel for lunch and we feasted on Southern fare. For her incredible addiction to sweet tea, Tabitha earned a new nickname (Sweet T). I don’t think she likes it much – but we’ll fight that one out later. On our way out of town, Sweet T read us snippets about the old buildings and directed us to a gorgeous view overlooking the merging of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers.

Beginning the Adventure

We met up with Elizabeth at the hotel in Ruston, Louisiana. She flew into Alexandria and had her own adventure as she drove north through the state. Something about truck tires, GPS systems, detours, construction, getting lost and an iPod. You put it together…

We loaded up the SUV with the strangest assortment of…well….everything at Wal-Mart and headed to the Lake. Lake D’Arbonne State Park is the home this week for the 25 Hands On and Americorps volunteers joining us from New Orleans and Biloxi. Check it out…http://www.crt.state.la.us/parks/lakedarb/Darbonne.htm.

Ms. Kay (the infamous Book Fairy, distributor of thousands of books to programs devastated on the Coast, and guardian of the warehouse home to almost 1 million Book Relief books) and her husband Mike met us at the lodge where a group of NCCC Americorps volunteers had already arrived. The Hands On volunteers from Biloxi were soon to follow and the lodge was suddenly filled with such energy and enthusiasm.

Elizabeth led a phenomenal, and abridged, First Book 101 to the group over sandwiches and soda. I’m not sure I have ever seen a group of such grateful women and men. I learned that the NCCC volunteers had built their own bunk beds in New Orleans and have been sleeping on mats or plywood. Needless to say the mattresses on the bunk beds in the lodge were an improvement, but I think we won their hearts with the stocked pantry. It’s the least we could do.

I can’t wait to learn more about their stories of where they have been and how they were able to pick up and leave for months, weeks, or days to come to the Coast to help. We heard a few stories about mold fighting, tutoring, rebuilding, re-roofing, and sludge cleaning. Flinging some boxes of books at a book distribution will seem like a vacation – and from what I’ve heard, a vacation is just what some of the long-term volunteers need.

A New Era

I think Elizabeth said it best today as we were loading the refrigerator with leftovers – this will be the start to a “new era”. There is an obvious commitment from the community, an overwhelming desire to help and do good, First Book being a destination for respite and relaxation, and enough hands to make distributing 200,000 books look like child’s play. It almost sounds too surreal….

I’m ready for tomorrow. The hours of preparation this weekend definitely took their toll, but I think it will pay off when I awake and remember that only minutes away rest 50 hands ready to help us rebuild the Coast. I am most excited for some good, old-fashioned, box-flinging, line-dancing, genuine fun.

Until tomorrow,

Rachael
12:36 a.m.