After being denied a library card in Illinois in 1990 because we bought a house outside of town limits, we went across the Mississippi River and discovered the downtown branch of the St. Louis Public Library. For $15 a year, we were able to take advantage of the incredible wealth of this huge library. With seven homeschooled kids to educate, we made weekly trips over the river and returned with our box full of books for schoolwork and pleasure reading. My kids literally grew up in this library! Every summer we participated in the summer reading program and were rewarded with two tickets for each child to see a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game. My oldest son would bring an armload of books with him to the games, looking up from his reading when something exciting happened. In 1994 my middle daughter was rewarded with the opportunity to represent the library and its summer reading program on the Bush Stadium field during a Cardinals baseball game. We loved this library up until we moved away in 2008, but I credit them for instilling in our family a delight in reading and a passion for learning. The kids are all adults now and our 15 (soon to be 16) grandchildren will carry on the love of libraries that was nurtured in one of Andrew Carnegie’s funded libraries. Well done, sir, and thank you for your generosity!
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