Holly's Library LIVES!

On my last morning in Pearlington this trip, I dropped in to see Holly Taylor and give her some more materials for friendship bracelets. I realized later that "Holly's library" still needed moving from its woeful spot to somewhere accessible, and that this was my last chance to do something about it. The forklift wasn't strong enough to move it, but the Dog Soldiers , who had built the library in November, were in town and I thought that the 7 of them plus me and a few other volunteers could push it across the school yard to a better site. So I called Tim Goodnow for help. He said he'd have to make a phone call and get back to me. When he called back, he'd said it would happen after lunch.

I rushed off to get Holly and tell her the news. She was really excited. The spot she'd wanted was now taken by a poling booth, so she picked a spot under a shade tree. The problem was that there was a garbage bin there, some pallets that had been roughly nailed together who knows how long ago, and never emptied. I told Holly and her friend Cassandra that they would have to prepare the site and get rid of the garbage. So we went into the Pearl-Mart and got 3 hammers. a shovel, a rake and garbage bags. The smell was gagging, but they got out what they could reach. Then we knocked the pallets apart and cleared away the rest of the mess - old blankets, sleeping bags, used diapers, cans and bottles and wrappers, all into the dumpster. Well done, girls!

At about 2:30p.m. , a man came into the office where I was working that day and asked if there was a lady who needed a shed moved. I leapt up and said "That's me!" He said he never saw anyone get so excited about moving a shed. "It's not an ordinary shed," I told him. It wasn't an ordinary move either. Ben Moss from Moss Towing in Bay St Louis had brought his son's tilting flatbed truck after a call from Tim Goodnow, and had done other helping out calls in the past for the Katrina clean-up. I got the girls again and we emptied the library of the books that Holly had already boxed and stacked them on the truck, Then Ben attached the wraps and winched the library onto the sloping flatbed.

Over at the new site, Holly had drawn on the ground where she wanted the library positioned, so it would face the school and people could see when it was open. Ben skilfully positioned it right on the mark! Then Ben, Holly, Cassandra, Alan from the Dog Soldiers and I unloaded the boxes of books from the truck. Within a few minutes, the avid readers were gathering, eager for the lending program to start again. What a great feeling! Thanks to everybody for keeping Holly's Library dream alive!

Eileen Powers
Midland, Ontario, Canada