Laura Appleseed

There is nothing more important than planting a seed. Laura Martin Bacon is planting seeds. And SoFAB is reaping what she has sown.

Many people have been generous about helping SoFAB rebuild our library which was largely turned to pulp by the flood waters after Hurricane Katrina. It was Chris Smith, our Collections Manager, acting on advice from librarian friends, who first began circulating the request for books in library circles. The librarians and libraries, especially the Arkansas State Library, were generous.

Then IACP , through the give-back committee, dispensed the idea that SoFAB would benefit from donations of cookbooks from its members, who were having their annual conference in New Orleans. The idea was refined further as SoFAB promised to inventory the donations and to further dispense those duplicate books to other local libraries and appropriate organization who had also lost their cookbooks after Katrina.

After the IACP conference, which Laura Martin Bacon attended, Laura began writing to key blogs and listserves for writers and readers about SoFAB's need to rebuild its collection. She has planted a seed in the entire United States. From her seeds the blogging world has relayed the message time and time again. I know that if I try to list them that I will leave some out. Newspapers in California have picked up the story further carrying seeds in the wind. Every time I see a box of these books come in, which is almost every day, I know that I have to thank the donor, but I also have to thank Chris, and the IACP give-back committee, and I have to thank that dynamo of passion and good will: Laura.

Thanks to you all soon the citizens of New Orleans - and SoFAB - will have a working, stocked library of cookbooks. For New Orleans is a city of cooks and cookbooks are not only read, but used. We appreciate it.