In late August, FOL partnered with Abra Palabra, a community reading room in one of the busiest neighborhoods in town, for a workshop held 3 days week for 3 weeks. A total of 17 children enjoyed a fun program that included story telling, writing and shadow puppetry. Friends of the Library's bookmobile was present once a week at Abra Palabra’s location in Colonia Mazatlán.  At the end of the 3 week series the children split into teams and each put together a show for their families and guests. Everyone celebrated the success of the workshop with pizza and snacks.
We asked the children who attended this "Summer of Puppets and Shadows" series what they liked most about participating, and they answered BEING TOGETHER and MAKING NEW FRIENDS.
Yes, we read books, we invented characters, we created stories, we put together puzzles, we made puppets, we jumped rope, we drew, we cut out things, we woke up every day with smiles and stretching, we enjoyed snacks and pizza—-
—all of that, yes, but we did it together, supporting each other, and THAT WAS THE BEST PART.
Once again, we experienced that the best ways of inhabiting our world are when we build a community. Building community and promoting reading…. that is a summer success story.

We loved sharing our bookmobile with the KPBS audience and greatly appreciate the opportunity.
Matt Bowler, KPBS video journalist, visited our bookmobile earlier this year following it as it moved from its secure parking spot at CEART to Colonia Independencia, one of its regular stops.
He filmed the process of loading up, taking off, and riding on the boulevard on the way to the site. He had the opportunity to observe our bookmobile librarian and volunteers, and to watch the arrival of the children and families. His interviews with some of our users showed how much the bookmobile means to the community.

He highlighted the fact that our beloved bookmobile is beginning to experience the challenges of age, and the importance of our current fund drive to build a replacement "nest egg" for the time that might be needed. 

We have built an amazing dedicated volunteer team over the years. These videos introduce you to a few of them. See Michelle walk you through the “routine” as users arrive at one of our Bookmobile’s biweekly stops. As with Barbara, who you see in the next video, she is totally bilingual. She can help our expat supporters understand how things work at the bookmobile. But she can instantly change languages to interact with our users of all ages. Ann, in a third video, has a professional librarian background plus a passion for what we do bringing books to the community of Rosarito. These volunteers are a total blessing for us. We didn't always have such a strong team to support our Program Coordinator and Bookmobile Librarian. But now we have these three and others who make our programs stronger every day.

FOL IN THE SCHOOLS
One of the programs we have maintained for several years is Somos Lectores (WE ARE READERS), which is in cooperation with the local school system. Our team goes into the schools, bringing our bookmobile and working with classroom reading clubs, lending books, and holding reading comprehension contests.
For as many schools as possible we help them establish or reactivate their own  school libraries. FOL runs workshops for teachers and “parent chats” to share with mothers and fathers the importance of books and reading for their children's lives. We have worked for about 15 years with elementary schools, for 3 years with kindergartens and more recently with high schools as well. Every year, teachers and school directors look to us to team up and provide these services. All of this is possible thanks to the people who support our programs through memberships, donations and our fundraiser events. 

The love for reading is manifested in the participation of many girls, boys and their families at each of our stops.
Here in the Machado neighborhood, next to the Pedro Moreno Primary School,  a constant stream of girls and boys return books and take out new ones. They come accompanied by their mothers, little brothers and sisters, and sometimes fathers. Activity peaks at the beginning and end of the school day.
Librarian Jael, with the support of 5 volunteers, has everything organized so that the operation flows smoothly.
Getting on to the BookMobile, looking for the next book to read, is something our users look forward to with excitement. And that's what it's all about: having fun reading today, will make us want to be in the company of a good book in all of our future days. 
Next time it will be  in the Independencia neighborhood (Behind El Florido), where we have more and more avid participants who happily come every 15 days to the Bookmobile stop.

She keeps the wheels rolling to promote the love of reading

Can you guess the most important part of our budget?  If you are thinking, “of course the most important budget item is for books!” …guess again!Our most important expense doesn't have a title, publisher and card catalog number, but is a professional with a name!  Allow us to tell you about our gift from the reading gods, Marcela Felix.
At age 20, Marcela learned her most important life lesson. She befriended some people whose wealth of knowledge, positive attitudes, and sophisticated discussions awed her. The common element in their lives? A love of reading.
This experience led Marcela to begin reading for enjoyment, having grown up  in an environment where reading for pleasure wasn't done. Now she saw reading not as a chore but a passion, and felt compelled to bring the same excitement to others.
She pursued specialized training and experience and is now an esteemed member of a unique group of dedicated reading promotion professionals in Mexico who support each other, sharing tools, tips, and techniques.
Sound special?  She is.  Special and rare. We shake our heads in amazement that her path converged with that of Friends of the Library of Rosarito. She inspires hundreds of families in Rosarito to read, a habit that will provide opportunities throughout their lives. 
The stipends, for Marce our Program Coordinator and Jael our Bookmobile librarian, are now the biggest items in our budget. And they are by far our most effective expenditures. They make our success possible.