Share the Love

There is a familiar saying “Everyone brings happiness here...some by entering, some by leaving”. Patty Wanninger, the Director of the Blue Island Public Library has left us. Patty was a wonderful director and a Blue Island booster and from the very beginning brought me happiness. I was sorry to see her go, but family called her back home to her former state of Wisconsin.
I attended her farewell luncheon and while I was there I ran into a fellow business owner. After we had eaten, he stood up and made a short speech about the wonderful things Patty had done, which are many. One thing he mentioned has stuck with me and I’ve been thinking about it. He said that often, when Patty was on her lunch break, she would stop in just to say hello. His business is not the type that you can stop in and spend $5.00 every now and then. In fact, the average resident may only visit this business once or twice in a lifetime. Many of his customers are able to do business by phone. He was touched that Patty made the effort to spend just a few minutes chatting every now and then.
As a business owner, I have days when I might see very few people, or even none at all what with the winter snow the way it has been. On a day like that it would be wonderful to have someone stop in just to talk for a few minutes. It brightens your day to think that someone cared enough to visit, even if they weren’t going to buy something.
Patty had a way of sharing her love of Blue Island with everyone around her. We all could take a page from her book. Some of us say “I love Blue Island” and then fail to demonstrate it. So even if you’re not prepared to spend $5.00 you might think about stopping in a few places just to say hello.
By the way, my friend Richard Wiseman wrote a letter to the editor asking businesses to please shovel a foot path through the snow banks to provide easy access for older pedestrians. I have to add to this by asking drivers to take care not to park across the foot paths that are shoveled out. Stop and consider for a moment that it may be your grandmother who has to climb the snow bank.
One last thing. The Forum Newspaper is the only newspaper that we have in Blue Island. It is the only independent source from which we can get our local news. Their funding is from advertisers and donations. So I’m making a personal appeal to you to share the love and send the Forum a note of thanks, and it wouldn’t hurt if you included a donation. A mere $5.00 from each adult would end up being a donation of $50,000.00, and I know that it would be greatly appreciated.

Candace Carr
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