Greetings to our wonderful donors! You may already have heard we were shut down by the virus-mitigation measures in March. These continue to be serious barriers for all library-type operations, especially where the browsing area is intimate and everyone is touching everything. We considered other ways of distributing books but they all appear to be much lower impact than what we were doing. The magic of the Free Bookmobile was in the experience, which uniquely stimulated people’s interest and made the books inside more special, plus the freedom of choice, which meant the books would actually be read later! We’re just not interested in pushing random ‘age appropriate’ material at kids via pre-assembled book bags or other giveaways. Some of our staff are also now facing personal challenges, so we have decided to wrap things up. Of course many of you donated generously last year toward our new bookmobile construction. Please be assured that we will be taking our time to make sure that vehicle is passed along to a reputable Sonoma County program that will make appropriate use of it for charitable literacy purposes, or as close as possible to that. We will store it for now and wait until life returns to something like normal before we feel confident in making that gift. Suggestions are welcome regarding potential recipient organizations, though we do have a good starting list of partners we have worked with for many years. Please see the photos of the finished vehicle attached to (or linked from) this message. You can also see the pictures here: https://tinyurl.com/y3srl6j8 And there is also a link on our website news page. We plan to maintain our non-profit status for a while in order to be a resource for other groups or individuals who might like to promote literacy and love of reading. A FREE BOOKMOBILE START-UP GUIDE will soon be available for download in hopes that folks all over the country (or world!), especially those in service groups like Kiwanis and Rotary, will take a look and see how simple it is to launch a worthwhile book-sharing project. Our service to Sonoma County has been the honor of a lifetime and meant so much to everyone involved on our end. We’ll always treasure the relationships we made, and want to thank our many patrons and supporters for their cheerful participation. Until we meet again, keep reading books made from paper! Take good care, Glen Weaver