President's Message

There is something exciting about new things. I can still remember when, as a child, my mother purchased my two sisters and me dresses for the upcoming school year from the National Dollar catalogs. Never mind that my unfashionable mom, a widow with five children, would simply buy the same styles of dresses in different colors – these dresses had seams sewn with deep pockets on both sides, and weren’t homemade or hand-me-downs.

Mom also bought us new school supplies, and we would start fresh after being away from classmates for three months. Yes, a new school year with new clothes, new supplies, and a new teacher brought with it a sense of hope and excitement.

Perhaps nothing is as celebratory about new things as facing a new year when, like the two-headed Roman god Janus after whom the month of January is named, we look back on the old year and look forward to the new.

As we contemplate the resolutions we make this year, let one of them be to read aloud to our children, our neighbor’s children, our community’s children. Let us share the gift of reading aloud and help our children love books and reading. What greater gift to share with our most precious resources!

“Ring out the old, ring in the new.”  Alfred Lord Tennyson