The Renfrow Story

My friend Dawn worked for our Area Education Agency for many years. She offered to share the book with a friend who is a media specialist and helps provide books related to curriculum topics. She loved the book and thought it would be a great fit for classrooms. Through that contact I was able to get approval to have the books delivered through the AEA van service. So last Wednesday we packed up all of those school books and off they went in the AEA van on Thursday.

I had also been asking Renfrow book fans to help by requesting the book at their public libraries. You all did great! That effort really ramped up when a librarian who received the book posted about it on a state wide library list serve. Two days after her posting I had 43 book requests and they’ve been trickling in ever since. So last Tuesday afternoon I went to the post office with two crates full of book packages that had to be weighed and labeled at the post office window. I know from doing this so often recently that it takes about 1 minute per package. I would be there a while so of course I wanted to be extra nice to the post office person who got stuck dealing with all of my piles! While she was weighing and labeling I ran across the street to the coffee shop and got a couple of cookies to give her and the other window person, he had done my first big pile of packages a couple of weeks ago. I figure if I’m going to get a reputation at the post office I want it to be a good one!

So now my focus is going to shift to Chicago and finding a way to get it into libraries and book stores there. This is important to me. But it’s really important to Miss Edith and Alice! They have friends and family asking where they can get the book and they want to be able to give them a Chicago location!

I’ve had some Renfrow book supporters say they’ve requested it through their public library in the Chicago area, but so far I have not had any library from Illinois request a donation. But I also know that libraries often have procurement rules that might make this hard. Sometimes they have policies against accepting donations like this or they can’t buy something if it’s not available through their established vendors. The same is true of independent bookstores. There are tons of people who have self-published books and every one of them thinks it should be in the local bookstore. There is a very wide range in quality and desirability so it makes sense that bookstores would have established procedures about this, with the default being they don’t accept self-published books. And I totally get that. As much as I think this book should be an acception, I totally respect the guidelines and procedures that are making that hard.

All of that being said, I am committed to doing everything I can to find a way! Mrs. Renfrow Smith has been a resident of Chicago since 1937. She inspired hundreds during her 20+ years as a teacher. She inspired more through her 40+ years as a volunteer. And as a 109 year old super ager and is surely one of the oldest residents of the windy city. She continues to inspire everyone who is fortunate enough to encounter her. This book needs to be available in Chicago! So I am working on making contact with a few people who have some clout and influence in the Chicago area. These are friends of friends connections, so more of a long shot, so cross your fingers and send some good vibes for things to fall in place.

This is the part of the project where I step completely outside the boundary of my comfort zone and realm of control. If you’ve followed the project for a while you may have heard me credit “Edith Magic” for many things. And I have said all along that this project has been guided by a higher power and sometimes I just have to step out of the way and trust where things are going. So call it Edith magic or God’s will or something else, if these books are meant to find their way to Chicago I’m going to do everything I can to help that happen. And if we can make it there, we can make it anywhere! (I’m sure New York won’t mind if we borrow that for the project, right?)