Book 'Em Literacy Event

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by e-mail through my Web site by Mark Kearney, a police officer from Waynesboro, VA. Now you might wonder, and reasonably so, why would a police officer from Waynesboro, VA be contacting little ol', law-abiding me?

Turns out I was wanted, not for an old speeding ticket but for my upcoming book, Lost in the Ivy. You see, last year Waynesboro started something great. It's called Book 'Em, a one-of-a-kind book fair. I'll let Mark explain it to you, as he did in this e-mail invitation:

Hello Mr. Richardson, I am Officer Mark Kearney of the Waynesboro Police Department in Waynesboro, Virginia. I am writing to invite you to the 2nd Annual Book ‘Em literacy event. Book ‘Em takes place on October 22 and 23, 2005 right here in Waynesboro. Book ‘Em is a unique book event in that we are probably the only Police Department in the entire world hosting a book fair where the goal is to highlight the connection between illiteracy/poor reading skills and crime rates. We have also started up several literacy programs and we hope to spread these to law enforcement agencies around the world.

Our website is www.bookemfoundation.org . I encourage you to take a look at the site to get an idea what we are doing. We’d love to have you attend, if you schedule permits.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about Book ‘Em or what we are trying to do.

Take care,

Mark

Officer Mark Kearney

Crime Prevention Officer

Waynesboro Police Department

Mark had even used his investigative skills to locate me. Apparently he had read about my book on another Web site and was intrigued enough to Google me. Fortunately he found me.

Over the last two weeks I mulled over the pros and cons of taking Mark up on his invitation. Waynesboro is not an easy place to get to. It's nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about 90 minutes from Richmond, or about two and a half hours from Washington, D.C. The cost in terms of airfare, hotel and car would all be coming directly out of my pocket. I contacted my publicist and asked her if she knew any authors who went to last year's inaugural Book 'Em. She said she did. She thought it was a wonderful event and wished there were more like them. So when I found that I could get a round-trip ticket to D.C. for $160, I knew this was an opportunity I could not pass up. How often do you get an invitation like the one I got from Mark? And how often do you get a chance to do something like this that's for a truly great cause?

This is probably the one and only time that being booked by a police officer is a good thing. For further details, check my Appearances page. 

Update on Wednesday, June 1, 2005 at 11:25AM by Randy Richardson

Here's Officer Mark's response to this Journal entry:

Hey Randy,

Wow, I’m honored as to what you put on your website. Our goal, over time, is to spread the Book 'Em event around the country and the world as well as spreading the various literacy programs to every law enforcement agency in the world. With you putting this on your site, it will help us. Thank you so much.

Comments

[Dave C.]

This sounds like a great opportunity. I think this should be the 2nd vacation for "The Toddler"!!!!

[Shahna]

Your loyal fans are packed and ready to go! Wayneboro - here we come!

[Marybeth]

I think Dave is on to something here. A two and a half hour car ride with "the Toddler" would make for a great blog story!!