As a native Washingtonian (the state that is, not the district), I was thrilled to be a member of the First Book team going to Auburn, WA to distribute 380,000 books donated by Scholastic to children in need across the country. I’ve been on a few distributions and knew it would be hard work but I was excited to be distributing books and meeting Recipient Groups in my home state.

We arrived at the warehouse graciously donated by the Washington State Surplus Commodities Coordinator on Monday morning after a stop at Dave’s Diner near SeaTac airport for some much needed fuel. The sight of hundreds of thousands of books boxed on pallets never ceases to amaze me. We had quite a job ahead of us. (I began questioning my logic for volunteering for this project.) Tabitha quickly put us to work inventorying pallets, weighing some boxes and starting to put orders together. We left that evening not completely worn out and prepared for volunteers to arrive on Tuesday. (Okay, maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all.)

The next two days flew by in a whirlwind of UPS labels, First Book stickers, pallets, boxes and shrink wrap. I will always have fond memories of The Bumpy Little Pumpkin and Bailey Goes Camping. A special thanks to the First Book-Tacoma and First Book-Yakima County Advisory Boards who pitched in and brought extra volunteers with them. My parents and my aunt volunteered with us on Tuesday. They had a lot of fun but I don’t think they were listening to me when I told them how much work it was going to be. At least they heard me when I said, “Wear closed toed shoes and something that can get dirty.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Zanna and I had to leave the rest of our team to finish up the distribution while we attended a Meet and Greet event in Seattle hosted by the First Book-King County Advisory Board and Miller Nash LLP. We had a wonderful time talking with community members about how they can get involved with First Book and were delighted by the amazing view from the 44th floor of Two Union Square. We weren’t quite sure how they could get any work done in that conference room. They said they usually have to close the blinds.

Now, back in the office writing about our experience, I’m reminded that I heard the motto for the City of Auburn is “More than You Imagined”. We couldn’t agree more.