Vocational day - Weds 5th May

Another vocational day, and another day of moving on (sniff). I left my wonderful hosts, Jeanne and Jeff Smith, at a very early hour. We convened with all of our luggage and were picked up by the Ithaca Rotary club, who took us to meet their Mayor at City Hall. We learned about Ithaca and its academic institutions, Cornell University and Ithaca College, and also about the breadth of the Mayor's responsibilities.

Then onto our vocational morning - we split up, and I met with Susan Currie, the director of the Tompkins County Public Library, who gave me the grand tour. The library is easily one of the largest I've seen in my time here, and I had a wonderful morning - we crammed so much into our short time. I even sat in on a "Babies, Books and Bounce" session, much like our own pre-school Storytimes. I had a great morning and it was a shame we couldn't spend longer together, we had so much to share.






The others did their own vocational activities, more to come on this later.

From here, the team met at the Rotary Club of Ithaca for lunch and another presentation. I was dosed up on cough syrup and got through the presentation fine, phew. The food was delicious - dressed chicken, salad and mashed potatoes -and I think we'd all like to thank the club for being such enthusiastic & welcoming hosts. I sat there with Brigid Hubberman, my vocational match for the afternoon, and I knew we'd get on well when she presented me with a fantastic board book called (appropriately!) Book. Brigid is the director of a truly remarkable programme called the Family Reading Partnership, which is a little similar to Bookstart in the UK, and aims to create a culture of reading for all children. They distribute free books to children from birth up to their first day of Kindergarten, display different 'Read to Me!" posters across town, and maintain Big Red Bookshelves in certain community locations (grocery stores, doctors' offices, school lobbies) where any child may take a gently used book - and keep it. I could have talked to Brigid for days and days, we had so much to discuss and I came away feeling so energised and inspired by her, and the work FRP have done so far. On top of all this, she also gave me a huge bag of goodies to take away, including calendars, magnets and STORYBOOKS. I have no doubt we'll be keeping in touch, she's a wonderful lady.




After this, the ladies on the team made a rest stop to Starbucks, via another Rotarian, Birgitte, and her jewellery/art store. (She gave us each 2 Godiva chocolates - of course we then asked her to join us!)

Finally, we spent the evening with another Rotarian for dinner - Jim and his wife Linda. There were other Rotarians present from the Ithaca club and it was a lovely evening, with great food and great company.






Eventually we moved for home, and I changed hosts again - this time with David and Mary Flinn. They live on a beautiful farm with HORSES, a Newfoundland dog named Larkin (who is a she) and various cats and geese. Their house is a treasure trove to me, horsey things to see verywhere. I finally collapsed into a delightfully comfortable bed around 11pm.